Security authorities are alarmed. In order to fill the coffers for the Ukraine war, Russia is working with organized crime.
Moscow – It has been known for decades that the Russian secret service works with organized crime. But the Ukraine war According to new findings, this disastrous cooperation has significantly intensified – with noticeable effects for Europe.
As Vice reports, illegal gangs, supported by the Russian intelligence apparatus, are expanding their activities to collect money for the state finances of Wladimir Putin to generate. That’s what senior intelligence and law enforcement officials told the US magazine. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, Russia has been subject to massive Western sanctions.
The increase in trade in illegal cigarettes is striking. Also Russia’s closest ally, the von ruler Alexander Lukashenko Belarus is authoritarian and supports tobacco smuggling, according to security circles. “Since the sanctions against Ukraine, we have seen even more open support for these operations from state entities in both Belarus and Russia. The mafia used to pay governments to protect them, now it seems a way to collect cash to replace revenue lost due to sanctions,” a Belgian federal police officer told Vice.
Russia and the Mafia: “Tsunami of Illegal Activities”
At the end of May, according to the report, special forces stormed two illegal cigarette factories in Lithuania run by criminals with connections Russia had been operated. Authorities were initially convinced it was a conventional organized crime endeavour, but according to the Belgian, Western intelligence services assume Russian agents in Moscow are behind it.
Apparently, the actions of criminals and Russian and Belarusian secret services are hardly decided anymore. “We have seen a huge surge in operations aimed both at making money for government business and at destabilizing Western Europe. None of this is new, but the scale is evolving into a tsunami of illegal activities being backed by state actors — aka Putin’s agents —” a NATO intelligence official who asked to remain anonymous told US media. (tvd)
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