On March 15, 2005, during an official visit to Lithuania, chairman of the Latvian Parliament Ingrda dre accused the Russian special services of intensification of their activity in Baltic states. Speaking about Russian spying activity in her country, dre declared, that after Latvia joined the European Union and NATO it increased greatly.
Baltic countries officials on Russian intelligence activity in the region
Arturs Paulauskas, chairman of the Lithuanian Parliament: "We possess irrefutable data on gathering of information on political and economic activities in the country by "foreign intelligence" (2005).
Dainis Mielsons, press secretary of the Latvian Constitution Protection Bureau (SAB): "Latvia, being part of NATO and the European Community, naturally has to interest "foreign" secret services" (2005).
Jis Kaociš, director of SAB: "In first half of 2004, concurrently with Latvia’s joining NATO and the EU, Russian intelligence increased activity in Latvia" (2004).
Uldis Dzenitis, deputy director of SAB: "Russian intelligence takes a keen interest in the creation of the Latvian army, its cooperation with other armies within the NATO framework, in its modern communication and information technologies, and, certainly, in classified NATO documents" (2004).
Jnis Reiniks, the chief of the Security police of Latvia (Drošbas policija): "There is concrete information on the interest shown by the secret services of "the foreign state" to our state properties, to our state policy … " (1999).
Krlis erns, member of Latvian parliament: " … it is clear that the Russian secret services continue to work … and, in all honesty, I think, nobody will ever expect that they are going to stop. Thus, the situation is extremely serious " (1998).
Why do they spy?
The Baltic region, being connected to the countries of Europe by rather safe seaways, is located in a zone of Russian strategic interests. For this reason from the beginning of the 18th century most of the area became part of the Russian empire. At the end of the First World War, Soviet Russia lost its control over this region, and three independent states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were formed. Despite this, Moscow constantly aspired to influence them. Therefore the Soviet secret services - People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD), its successor General Political Administration (OGPU) and also "Razvedupr" (secret service of the Joint Staff) worked actively in the Baltic states.
Besides direct spying on them, their territory was used as a bridgehead for espionage activity in Europe, the Middle East and the USA.
For a certain period of time after the Soviet Union’s collapse and the restored independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the Russian secret services did not show hyperactivity in the region. First of all because of the internal chaos and uncertainty reigning in all the Russian secret services from the Main Intelligence Administration (GRU), whose structure survived the collapse, up to the new services, which were born from the ashes of shattered KGB.
However, by 1995, the Russian secret services came to their senses and instigated vigorous activity in the Baltic region.
Territorial affinity, presence of an old secret service agents’ pool, common "linguistic space" (the majority of inhabitants of the Baltic countries know Russian to some extent), functioning connections between those countries and Russia in the fields of economics, culture, tourism, etc. were the furtherance to such activity.
The growing interest of the Russian intelligence community in the Baltic region may be explained by several reasons. First, Moscow’s aspiration to influence local governmental politics, forces the Russian secret services to trace political, economic and social affairs at the local level, to reveal and mark key figures and institutes. Secondly, the Russian leaders simultaneously see the process of the integration of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into the European Union and into NATO in the spring of 2004, not only as a new threat, but also as a new opportunity.
On the one hand, Russia's show of trepidation extending to paranoia, concerning the locating of NATO military bases in the Baltic states, which may be used as a bridgehead for conducting spying activity in Russia.
And on the other hand, the Russian secret services make an effort to gain as much as possible from the opportunity for secret services penetration into the European Union and NATO. And the territory of the Baltic states still represents a good jumping-off place for transferring Russian agents to other countries.
Who is spying and how?
Three Russian secret services - SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service), FSB (Federal security service) and GRU (the Intelligence service of the Joint Staff) are active in the Baltic states at the moment. Before the reform of the Russian Intelligence community which took place in 2003, the Russian Federal Service of Governmental Communication and Information (FAPSI) also had been working in the region under embassy cover. Today its functions abroad have been handed to SVR.
SVR and GRU work through so-called "residentura" - fixed-post spies (the intelligence officers operating under diplomatic or other official cover in embassies and other Russian governmental establishments), supervising both secret-service, and technical spying, and also by the officers coming from Russia or from any third state for recruitment or meeting with an agent under any plausible excuse (so called "legend"). Dispatching of the spies with various tasks is also practiced.
Except for official officers, connected with locally placed secret services, FSB has no representatives abroad. This organization conducts its work in the Baltic states by two channels: through the intelligence apparatus of the border guard forces (subordinate to FSB since 2003) and through the local structures of FSB available in each administrative unit of the Russian Federation, and also in military staffs stationed there.
The most active departments of FSB engaged in Baltic area intelligence are: Saint Petersburg's branch, the Leningrad, Pskov and Kaliningrad areas divisions, and also the Baltic fleet unit.
Related items:
Chronicle of Russian Espionage in the Baltic Countries
Russian Espionage Activity Against Estonia Continues
The Seventh Baltic Economic Forum
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