"Huge Machine": The Russian Federation has created a network of spies larger during the Cold War - FT

"The game of mouse cats has returned," one of the Western intelligence officers said. "Russian activity is as or even higher than during the Cold War," another said. "Russian intelligence is a huge car, and it is doing what she always did again," the third officer said. In fact, there is a weekly secret operation that shows how far the Russian spies have entered Europe since the beginning of a full -scale war in Ukraine.

On February 27, Ivan Tikhomer became the sixth Bulgarian, who was charged with participating in the Russian spy group in Britain. Two weeks before that, Spain found a shot former Russian pilot Maxim Kuzminov. Before that, France discovered a network of 193 sites that had to spread misinformation to the European Parliament elections. The most expelled blow to the Russian Federation was the conversation of German officials about Taurus. Luftwaffe officers spoke through an unprotected link.

German officials say that this has become a frank attempt by President Vladimir Putin to share Ukrainian allies. Since 2022, military intelligence, FSB and external intelligence service have regrouped and updated their strength to increase the chances of success in their operations. The priorities remained the same as before the full -scale war - the abduction of Western secrets, an increase in differences in NATO and undermine Ukraine's support.

The methods of the Russian Federation have become more resourceful. One of the greatest changes in the Kremlin is the intensification of the use of foreigners for their own purposes. "[Proxy] may not know that they work for Russians, they can be criminals or other persons they pay," the scout said. Moscow can also press on immigrant relatives so that they start working with them abroad. Proxy use tactics have their advantages, including more opportunities to deny their involvement.

They can also be effective for creating export schemes to evade sanctions or penetration into computer networks. However, such agents will be difficult to control in the absence of a spy in place. The Kremlin for this is recruiting people without military experience so that they do not have a military past. Currently, traditional spy methods of the Russian Federation operates in neutral Switzerland and Austria. They also intensified in Turkey and the UAE.