Russian sabotage
The Russians use local criminals
E-chief Nils Andreas Stensønes confirms that Russian intelligence uses local criminals to carry out sabotage and create fear in NATO countries.
CRIMINALS: Nils-Andreas Stensønes, head of the intelligence service, confirms that Russian intelligence uses criminals in NATO countries to carry out sabotage. Photo: Hans Arne Vedlog / Dagbladet
Gunnar Hultgreen
Published Monday 26 August 2024 - 07:10
https://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/ukraina-krisa
- Russia's military intelligence - GRU (Glavnoje Razvedyvatelnoje Upravlenije) - is now using local criminals to carry out actions in NATO countries, says vice admiral and head of the E-service Nils Andreas Stensønes in an interview with Dagbladet.
The e-boss does not want to say anything about what the Russians have done in Norway, but confirms that Russian intelligence is behind several incidents in NATO countries.
Impact
Several matters are under investigation, so it is not right for me to comment on individual cases, says Stensønes.
- President Putin has said that the country is now in confrontation with the West. Russia is struggling in Ukraine, and they are primarily concerned with reducing aid to Ukraine. Both the popular support, and influence deliveries directly to Ukraine, says Stensønes.
The e-chief confirms that Russian intelligence uses local criminal organizations in Western countries organizations to carry out actions and spread fear.
Recruits criminals
- We see that GRU likes to try to recruit local criminals. The advantage for the Russians is that it is more deniable, and that Russian agents are not directly involved in sabotage and influence operations. The downside for the Russians is that criminal organizations are difficult to control.
- Communication is digital, and misunderstandings can occur. Such criminal organizations can also do things on their own initiative, so that the effect of actions planned and ordered by the Russians will be different, says Stensønes.
The e-boss says bluntly that Russia has little to lose by using local criminals.
Intention
- Russia's intention is to prevent material from reaching Ukraine. By using local criminals, they also spread fear and try to create uncertainty and insecurity in Europe. Which in turn can contribute to the population becoming more skeptical about helping Ukraine, says Stensønes.
- We see more coordinated Russian efforts to undermine this support for Ukraine. They do this by creating what we call sector operations. Where they deal damage to reduce the west's support. It has happened in several places, and it is very likely that the GRU is behind it
Dagbladet is aware that the Norwegian authorities are investigating what may be sabotage against cables from Norway to Svalbard, the cutting of cables at Evenes air station and several incidents on the railway line from Narvik to Kiruna.
Unexplained events
In Finland, there have recently been a number of inexplicable break-ins at local power stations, without anything being destroyed. Polish authorities believe the Russians were behind a fatal fire in a large shopping center, and several other unexplained incidents.
In England, it has been confirmed that the riots after the tragic murders in Southport are connected to Russian intelligence. There have also been incidents in Sweden, the Baltic countries and other NATO countries that are linked directly to the GRU.
Choice and murder
Stensønes does not want to say anything concrete about what has happened in the last year and the last few months.
- Russian intelligence influenced both the election in the USA in 2016 and Brexit four years later. In the Czech Republic, a large ammunition warehouse was destroyed in 2014. It is also known that the Russians were behind the poisoning of the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia in 2018 in England.
Speaking to Dagbladet, Nils Andreas Stensønes emphasizes that even if the e-service reveals Russian activity, not everything that may appear to be sabotage is necessarily so.
The e-boss does not want to create unnecessary fear in the population.
The difference
The GRU also killed former FSB (Russian Security Police, formerly known as KGB) lieutenant colonel Aleksandr Valterovich Litvinenko with the radioactive substance polonium 210 in a London hotel in 2006.
- The difference between Western and Russian intelligence is that we are under democratic control. Russian intelligence is different from Western European intelligence, we report to the Storting and behave within the law. In Western societies there is a completely different balance between state security, personal freedom and human rights than there is in an autocracy like Russia, says Stensønes.
Strengthened cooperation
- It would be completely unthinkable for a Western intelligence organization to poison its own citizens. It illustrates how insanely large a distance there is between the borders we operate under, and what Russian intelligence is doing, says the E boss.
- The e-services give advice to the Norwegian authorities, are they followed?
- The Norwegian authorities have done a good deal, following advice from us and the other security services – PST (Police Security Service) and National Security Authority (NSM). Among other things, the expulsion of 15 agents last year. There were intelligence agents who were in Norway under the guise of being diplomats. Several of those deported worked for GRU, says Stensønes.
He also points out that the Norwegian authorities have followed up on advice about Russian access to Norwegian ports, and length of stay in these ports.
- We have also gained a strengthened collaboration between NSM, PST and us in the E-service. And with other government bodies and the business world, says Nils Andreas Stensønes, head of the E-service.