Russia has created spy department for sabotage across Europe - WSJ
Russia has created a new shadowy spy unit that targets the West: its operations have included assassination attempts, sabotage, and conspiracies to plant incendiary devices on airplanes.
According to Censor.NET, The Wall Street Journal reported this with reference to representatives of Western intelligence.
According to the interlocutors, the unit was named the Department of Special Tasks and is based at the headquarters of Russian military intelligence. Its operations, which have not been previously reported, have included assassination attempts, sabotage, and plots to plant incendiary devices on airplanes.
Western intelligence indicates that the creation of the department reflects Moscow's position against the West during the war. According to two European intelligence chiefs and other U.S. and European security officials, it was created in 2023 in response to Western support for Ukraine and has recruited veterans of some of Russia's most daring covert operations in recent years.
"Russia believes that it is in conflict with what it calls the 'collective West' and is acting accordingly, including threatening us with a nuclear attack and building up its army," said James Appathurai, Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Hybrid Warfare at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The new department, known to Western intelligence officials by the acronym SSD, is believed to be behind a slew of recent attacks on the West, including an attempted assassination of the CEO of a German arms manufacturer and a plot to place incendiary devices on planes using the giant DHL transportation service.
The SSD has united various elements of the Russian security services. It has taken over some powers from the FSB, the country's largest intelligence service, and absorbed Unit 29155, which Western intelligence and law enforcement agencies say was behind the 2018 poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom.
According to Western intelligence officials, SSD has at least three broad missions: carrying out assassinations and sabotage abroad, infiltrating Western companies and universities, and recruiting and training foreign agents. The department has attempted to recruit agents from Ukraine, developing countries, and countries considered friendly to Russia, such as Serbia. The unit also runs an elite special operations center known as Senezh, where Russia trains some of its special forces.
The WSJ sources said that the unit is led by Colonel General Andrey Averyanov and Lieutenant General Ivan Kasyanenko. The Czech police are looking for Averyanov, a participant in the Russian-Chechen war, on suspicion of carrying out an operation to blow up an ammunition depot in 2014.
The newspaper writes that in December, the European Union imposed sanctions on a unit of the department, without specifying the name SSD, for organizing "coups, assassinations, bombings and cyberattacks" in Europe and other countries.
In December, the United States indicted SSD members on similar charges. The State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for any information about the five members accused of cyberattacks on Ukraine.
"The SSD's hostile activities peaked last summer but have recently subsided, according to U.S. and European officials. The lull in activity may be aimed at creating diplomatic space for Moscow to negotiate with the new U.S. administration, according to two European intelligence chiefs," The Wall Street Journal notes.
