NATO claimed to identify and expel Russian spies in Brussels

According to the report of the international group Tasnim news agency quoting “Spiegel”, in recent years, NATO allegedly expelled suspected Russian spies from its headquarters in Brussels. Germany’s Bild stated: We expelled Russian personnel from NATO headquarters. He added: We found out that they are doing activities that are not actually diplomatic work, but intelligence work. According to Stoltenberg, NATO allies have done similar things. It’s an issue that has been raised among NATO allies.

Stoltenberg did not provide specifics about the timeframe or number of expulsions in the interview. NATO later announced that these expulsions were the events of the past years. Stoltenberg continued: “We are also taking some steps to make it more difficult for the Russian secret services to carry out illegal activities between or within NATO.” It was accompanied by various reactions from the German authorities.

Marie-Agnes Struck Zimmermann, a politician from the German Liberal Democratic Party, told SPIEGEL about the deployment of Russian agents at NATO headquarters. : “Russian spies exist not only in some countries, but also in the heart of the NATO administration, and it is not a surprising issue. Espionage is a rule, not an exception.”

He, who is also the head of the Defense Commission in the German Parliament, said in another part of his speech: “In recent years, Germany and Europe” They have behaved very carelessly and completely naive” towards the security policy. He urged: “We need to take much better precautions against espionage, not only in Germany, but throughout NATO.” Espionage is part of the hybrid warfare toolbox in countries like Russia and other authoritarian and dictatorial regimes. Zimmerman said: “We must put aside our lack of knowledge and finally take decisive action against it.” This is “only the tip of the iceberg” of what Russia’s espionage and disinformation campaigns are currently showing. The chairman of the parliamentary control committee of the Bundestag told SPIEGEL: Recently, the Karsten L. treason case. In Germany’s BND intelligence agency, it showed how devastating even a single case of espionage can be. “Current and serious suspected cases of Russian espionage and corruption in the extreme Alternative for Germany party also show how serious the situation is,” von Notz said. However, it is not only Russia that is monitoring Germany.

The politician from the Green Party of the German Parliament called for a close inspection of security-related facilities to see if they are in whether they are protected against hostile influence and demanded to strengthen the protections against this issue. It was not surprising. This politician of the Christian Democratic Party told SPIEGEL about this: “The Russian intelligence system is a very aggressive system. Russian services are capable of large and complex intelligence operations. Agents are also placed at critical and sensitive points to intercept or sabotage information there. This has been happening for years, especially in Europe. So it is not surprising that this has also affected the NATO headquarters in Brussels.” There, Russia has a “special interest in accessing security-related information,” the Bundestag representative said, and praised NATO for its response.

He also said In this regard, we cannot talk about some unique cases. The Christian Democratic Party politician said: “In 2022, around 400 intelligence agents will be fired from across Europe.” However, many of them “pose as diplomats or continue to travel in European cities on tourist visas to obtain information through espionage and use disinformation and sabotage to destroy the cohesion of the European Union and NATO and sabotage.” use in support of Ukraine.” Kizoter also called on the German federal government and European institutions to take stronger measures against espionage and Russian agents.

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