Russia: goodbye to 007, today spies disguise themselves as diplomats

The James Bond and Austin Powers have long been relegated to the memory of the Cold War and dusty DVDs. Today, the spies They dress up as diplomats to steal information and put their enemies in check.

So it is understood that, from time to time, there are diplomatic crises. The last one comes from Czech Republic, a country that defenested 18 Russian attachés, the direct consequence of which was that the Kremlin respond with a similar action.

Those expelled were accused by the intelligence agencies as spies.

The 007 paraphernalia to which the seventh art accustomed us is a thing of the past.

But it is surprising that the nation that is always in the sights of the rest is the one headed by Vladimir Putin. It should be remembered that, in March 2018, the United States ordered the expulsion of 60 diplomats accused of the same.

And it has not been the only time or the only country to react in the same way to the Russia. This invites us to think: is it that the Russian embassies are a nest of spies?

OPERANDY MODE

It was the newspaper “La Razón” that posed the aforementioned question. In an article, it is stated that secret agents are often protected with diplomatic immunity, and that their missions are usually to collect information and “frustrate agreements and decisions”To harm the host country.

The Radio Prague International portal, in a note from 2000, recalls that the Russian spies had contact with the Czech extremists, over whom they wanted to influence.

It is, according to the article, a modus operandi that comes from the Cold War, when the “KGB Soviet kept“Close contact”with leaders and agitators of different western extremist groups helping them to sell a positive image of the USSR on the other side of the Iron Curtain”.

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Unlike the cliche imposed by James Bond, today’s Russian spies are not interested in attracting attention. Disguised as delegates of Moscow, configure “a veritable network of espionage, influence, extortion and shady deals”.

Infobae notes that, “unlike“From other delegations” with more democratic representation, the titles that appear on their business cards are just a facade. ” Its mission is to infiltrate businessmen, politicians and journalists to achieve “sensitive information”.

“After the collapse of the Soviet experiment in Russia, the KGB face wash went into operation. His heir would only change his name: he was renamed FSB, after several restructures in its organization chart”, Writes the portal.

And add:

“It is up to President Vladimir Putin, who was a spy during the final years of the Cold War in East Germany. It operates in the same building as its predecessor and employs around 300,000 secret agents”.

With that impressive network, for example, the attaches intruded on the Russian diplomatic headquarters in Hague, until they were accused of “steal confidential technology data” Y “spy on high-tech companies”.

Following their expulsion from those officers from the Netherlands, the Kremlin reacted in the same way.

The United States accused seven Russian spies of the GRU (the intelligence service) of international cyber-hacking. (AFP).

It was not the first time that Russian spies had been detected in that country. Earlier, an operation was thwarted and a cyber attack on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

“The objective of the mission was to attack the computer systems of the agency. According to the Dutch government, the operation – which consisted of a super-equipped vehicle parked in a hotel along the building where the entity operates – was coordinated by the Central Intelligence Department of the Russian army.”, Infobae writes.

Why was that place so interesting? There they investigated the chemical weapons attack that killed 50 people in Duma, Siria, in April 2018.

OPERATION ENIGMA

Perhaps one of the most talked about spies in recent times was Andrei Konchakov. He came to Prague as a diplomat with a mission to address the Russian embassy and, from there, figure out how to poison the mayor. Zdenek Hrib, mayor of Prague and enemy of the Kremlin.

No one could check his diplomatic bag so he had no problem doing the entire tour with the poison. Happily, his mission failed.

It is also reminded of Aleksandr Nikolayevich Y Aleksandr Paristov, “accredited as third parties of the Russian embassy in Bogota”. They were both expelled from Colombia on December 8 of last year.

According to the “Semana” portal, the follow-up for two years (work that became known as the Operation Enigma) allowed to know that both were spies “dedicated to obtaining information on military intelligence, technology and critical infrastructure of the country’s energy sector”.

“The spies appeared to lead a normal diplomatic life, but they constantly made strange movements, had several vehicles at their disposal and moved through the most unusual places”, Says the portal.

What made the Colombian government’s alarm bells go off? The arrival “Mass of Russian MI helicopter technicians”(Which the Colombian Armed Forces has) and the large number of officials who worked in its embassy (44, the same as in the UK) were the reasons.

“Intelligence believes that the work of these diplomatic-spies had a direct relationship with Venezuela’s interests in the region, which are linked to Russian support.”, Sentences the media.