In Russian intelligence slang are called “expendable agents.” These are drug addicts or small -mounted criminals in amounts of fast cash and without too many scruples when accepting controversial works. Last summer, the Swedish Intelligence Service … Säpo warned of a “greater risk” of Russian attacks in the country against facilities for the production of weapons and energy centrals.
Since then, however, Russian intelligence has changed its recruitment pattern, which begins in chats or drug sales points and complicates the works it entrusts as the amount of money at stake increases. They are less striking, they go unnoticed at the security forces, which classify them as usual criminals and do not associate them with a foreign force. To get rid of them, in addition, it is much less complicated: “We call them expendable or consumption agents,” he says Fredrik HallströmHead of Operations of the Swedish Security Service.
The first mission is modest, 50 dollars in cryptocurrencies in exchange for paste anti-oan stickers, for example. But, over time, orders are no longer transmitted directly, but through the Telegram application and become more serious. If sufficient diligence has been demonstrated, the selected ones are allowed to enter a closed section of the Chat Forum where Russian computer pirates boast of the objectives they had chosen.
Often the freshly captured agents are not aware of who they are serving until now. Its degree of addiction or need for money, previously tested by the captors, erases any residual scrup. “There are applications to help for example in a computer attack on a Lithuanian water treatment plant, accompanied by an instructional video, and later we have known that, indeed, there has been an attempt to violate data at the water treatment plant,” confirms the head of the Must Military Intelligence and Safety Service, Thomas Nilsson.
The Säpo has already instructed local police forces so that they are especially attentive, especially close to critical infrastructure. “The phenomenon has only been recognized recently,” he says Anna Guthriedirector of the group of experts of Stockholm ‘Frivärld’, in statements to ‘Tagespiegel’, “the recruits do not understand input for what they are being recruited, they only have an immediate need for remuneration and are very vulnerable, which makes them very manageable and particularly attractive to Russia.”
This recruitment is immersed in a broader campaign of hybrid war, in which Russia has decided to focus the activity of its professional agents in other geographical areas, since in Europe it is more difficult to operate. For this reason, these people are used for field tasks, the tracking prior to attacks, or as articulated disinformation campaigns terminals from Russia.
In general, we see that “Russia is trying to create social and political disturbances through sabotage and other incidents,” confirms the spokesman for Säpo, Gabriel Wernstedt“With the objective to create a citizen feeling of insecurity and also to reduce support to Ukraine between the population and those responsible for decision -making in Western countries”.
Sweden is one of the greatest donors of help to Ukraine. According to the Kiel World Economy Institute, the recently adhered Nordic country to NATO is sending almost double help to Ukraine that Germany, for example. Almost one in three Swedes (29%) would also want their government to increase that support, according to a December Yougov survey. Russian intelligence strives to reverse that state of opinion and has found this access road very low.
“These agents are recruited and instructed mainly through social media platforms and then used for simple and progressively more complex sabotage or influence operations,” says Säpo spokesman. The Swedish public television network has published an investigation in which it infiltrated a journalist in a group of proruso chat on social networks that ended up accepting one of these first works. He could verify that it is an international chat, in which recruits from various countries participate.
The security of the Finnish state, Suojelupoliisi, has also recently warned about a wide range of sabotage activities by Russia in northern Europe. Moscow wants to “pursue its political objectives by all means,” according to a press release, which warns that Kremlin is trying to influence public opinion through major and minor acts of sabotage.
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