Category Archives: Espionage

Russian spy ship escorted away from area with critical cables in Irish Sea

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Yantar intelligence ship was seen operating drones in an area containing subsea energy and internet infrastructure

A Russian spy ship has been escorted out of the Irish Sea after it entered Irish-controlled waters and patrolled an area containing critical energy and internet submarine pipelines and cables.

It was spotted on Thursday east of Dublin and south-west of the Isle of Man but Norwegian, US, French and British navy and air defence services initially observed it accompanying a Russian warship, the Admiral Golovko, through the English channel last weekend.

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NSO – not government clients – operates its spyware, legal documents reveal

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Details of emerge in sworn depositions by employees of Israeli company as part of lawsuit brought by WhatsApp

Legal documents released in ongoing US litigation between NSO Group and WhatsApp have revealed for the first time that the Israeli cyberweapons maker – and not its government customers – is the party that “installs and extracts” information from mobile phones targeted by the company’s hacking software.

The new details were contained in sworn depositions from NSO Group employees, portions of which were published for the first time on Thursday.

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Russia sends ex-US consulate employee to prison for ‘secret collaboration with foreign state’

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Robert Shonov worked for 25 years for consulate and was arrested on suspicion of passing secret information about war in Ukraine to US

A Russian former employee of the US consulate in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok has been sentenced to four years and ten months in prison for “secret collaboration with a foreign state”.

Robert Shonov worked for more than 25 years for the US consulate until 2021, when Moscow imposed restrictions on local staff working for foreign missions.

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Network of Israeli citizens arrested after spying for Iran, police say

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Suspects are accused of photographing and collecting information about Israeli bases and facilities

Israeli police and the Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency say they have arrested a network of Israeli citizens spying for Iran who allegedly provided information on military bases and conducted surveillance of individuals.

The investigators claimed the network had been active for about two years. According to reports in the Israeli press, the suspects are accused of photographing and collecting information about Israeli bases and facilities, including the defence headquarters in Tel Aviv, known as the Kirya, and the Nevatim and Ramat David airbases.

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US charges former Indian spy allegedly linked to foiled murder plot

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Justice department says Vikash Yadav, who remains at large, planned to murder a Sikh separatist in New York

The United States has charged a former Indian intelligence officer who allegedly directed a foiled plot to murder a Sikh separatist in New York City last year.

An indictment of Vikash Yadav was ordered to be unsealed on Thursday, court records showed. Yadav was a former officer in India’s Research and Analysis Wing spy service, the records said. He remains at large.

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West’s spy chiefs alarmed at recklessness of Russian counterparts

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After expulsion of hundreds of embassy-based spies, Kremlin is using riskier and less conventional methods

A developing Russian campaign of arson, sabotage and even murder plots has left western intelligence agencies alarmed over the past year.

The ramping up of activity has come as the Kremlin’s spy apparatus recovered from the initial shock of seeing 450 agents posing as diplomats expelled from Europe in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

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Ireland is a ‘playground’ for Russian intelligence, says former army chief

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Comment follows claim Kremlin recruited member of parliament to damage UK-Irish relations during Brexit talks

Ireland is a “playground” for Russian intelligence, a former deputy chief of an Irish army unit has said following claims that a member of parliament was recruited by the Kremlin to undermine Anglo-Irish relations during Brexit talks.

Cathal Berry, now a Teachta Dála (TD, member of the Irish parliament), said he had not been surprised by a report at the weekend that the unnamed politician had been recruited “as an agent of influence” in a honeytrap operation.

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Malcolm Turnbull condemns UK’s ‘extraordinary’ hypocrisy over Spycatcher affair

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Exclusive: Former Australian PM witnessed ‘shocking act of perjury’ and says MI5 are still trying to hide something

The former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has accused the UK government of hypocrisy and concealment over the way it continues to block the release of secret files about the Spycatcher affair.

Before entering politics, Turnbull was a barrister for Peter Wright, a retired senior MI5 intelligence officer who revealed a series of illegal activities by the British security services in his memoir Spycatcher.

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Israel’s prime target: the hunt for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar

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Motivated pursuers using advanced technology and brute force have yet to pin down their cautious quarry. Would his death or capture stop the war?

A group of Israel hostages were huddled in a tunnel in Gaza a few days after they had been dragged from their homes on 7 October, when the man who had plotted their abduction appeared out of the subterranean gloom.

His hair and beard were grey and his dark-ringed eyes stared out from under thick black brows. It was a face familiar to them from a thousand broadcasts and newspaper stories: Yahya Sinwar. The Hamas leader in Gaza was the most feared man in Israel, even before he ordered the October raid in which 1,200 people – two-thirds of them civilians – were killed and 250 taken hostage.

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Family of Ethel Rosenberg say US document proves she was no Soviet spy

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Sons whose mother was executed with her husband Julius in 1953 say newly released document proves innocence

The family of Ethel Rosenberg, who was sent to the electric chair along with her husband, Julius, in 1953 after being convicted of spying for the Soviets at the height of the Red Scare, have called on Joe Biden to formally exonerate her after a newly released document appeared to show that the US government knew she was not a spy.

The couple maintained their innocence until the end and the case of the Rosenbergs has long been seen as a possible miscarriage of justice. Though most historians see Julius Rosenberg as a real Soviet spy, questions about Ethel Rosenberg’s role have lingered and their sons, Robert and Michael Meeropol, have long campaigned in their family’s cause.

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Whale alleged to be Russian ‘spy’ died after stick became lodged in its mouth, say police

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Animal rights groups had claimed beluga named Hvaldimir, which was found dead last month, had been shot

A beluga whale that rose to fame in Norway after its unusual harness prompted suspicions that the creature was trained by Russia as a spy died after a stick became stuck in its mouth, police have said.

The lifeless body of the whale, named Hvaldimir – a combination of the Norwegian word for whale and the first name of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin – was found floating in the sea on 31 August by a father and son fishing in Risavika Bay, southern Norway.

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Ex-aide to New York governors charged with being agent of Chinese government

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Linda Sun, Kathy Hochul’s former deputy chief of staff, arrested for ‘furthering’ Chinese interests, attorney says

A former New York state government official who worked for the former governor Andrew Cuomo and current governor, Kathy Hochul, was charged on Tuesday with acting as an undisclosed agent of the Chinese government, federal prosecutors revealed in a sprawling indictment.

Linda Sun, who held numerous posts in New York state government before rising to the rank of deputy chief of staff for Hochul, was arrested on Tuesday morning along with her husband, Chris Hu, at their $3.5m home on Long Island.

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Sweden warns of heightened risk of Russian sabotage

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Weapons facilities targeted as security companies report more sabotage attempts, espionage and cyber-attacks

Swedish authorities have warned of a heightened risk of Russian sabotage, in particular of weapons facilities, as the defence industry said it was being increasingly targeted.

Security companies in Sweden reported a rise in sabotage attempts, including using drones over defence company facilities to document and map them, “more aggressive” espionage, cyber-attacks and misinformation.

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‘Three or four’ countries involved in foreign interference in Australia including ‘friends’, Mike Burgess says

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Asio director general says some of the countries trying to intimidate diaspora communities ‘would surprise you’

Australia’s spy boss, Mike Burgess, has confirmed that Iran is one of “at least three or four” countries involved in foreign interference in Australia’s diaspora communities.

Speaking on ABC’s Insiders on Sunday, the director general of security in charge of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation said he could think of “at least three or four [countries] that are we’ve actually actively found involved in foreign interference in Australia and diaspora communities”.

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MI5’s posthumous discovery of Stakeknife files alarms inquiry chief

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Release of intelligence year after death ‘casts doubt’ on security service’s previous claims about British spy in IRA accused of murders

The police chief investigating murders allegedly carried out by Freddie Scappaticci, a British agent in the IRA known as Stakeknife, has expressed alarm that hundreds of pages of files providing “new investigative leads” have been found by MI5 a year after Scappaticci’s death.

Sir Iain Thomas Livingstone, a former head of Police Scotland who leads Operation Kenova, has written to the Northern Ireland secretary of state to highlight the troubling timing and warn that the new intelligence raises questions about MI5’s previous claims of knowledge about Stakeknife.

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Kremlin admits Vadim Krasikov is a Russian state assassin

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Spokesperson hints killer exchanged in prisoner swap was linked to Putin’s personal guard

The Kremlin has admitted that Vadim Krasikov, the assassin freed by Germany in a historic prisoner swap on Thursday, is a serving officer of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), essentially an acknowledgment that his 2019 murder of a Chechen exile in Berlin was a state-ordered hit.

It also hinted that he was linked to Vladimir Putin’s personal guard.

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Who’s who among the prisoner exchange between Russia and the west?

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Deal includes political prisoners and journalists held in Russia and Belarus being swapped for Russians held in west

Evan Gershkovich
A Wall Street Journal reporter, Gershkovich became the first western correspondent to be arrested for espionage since the fall of the Soviet Union. Detained in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to Ekaterinburg, Russian authorities claim he was collecting information for the CIA, but have never made public any of their supposed evidence. Gershkovich, his newspaper and the US state department have all denied the charges. He was sentenced to 16 years in jail in July in a speedy, closed trial.

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Russian spies sentenced in Slovenia after pleading guilty

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Pair’s conviction could pave way for inclusion in any future prisoner exchange between Russia and west

Two Russian deep-cover spies arrested in Slovenia have pleaded guilty in a swift court case that potentially paves the way for them to be included in a prisoner exchange between Russia and the west.

The pair, whose real names are thought to be Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, were arrested in late 2022, and are believed to be “illegals” – deep-cover Russian spies trained to impersonate foreigners, who spend years living abroad in their cover identities. They posed as Ludwig Gisch and Maria Mayer, an Argentinian couple, and spoke to their two children in Spanish. She ran an online art gallery and he had an IT business, but all the while they secretly worked for Russian intelligence.

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Albanese tells Russian embassy to ‘back off’ over criticisms of spying charges

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Prime minister’s comments come as embassy claims agency bosses were trying to fuel ‘anti-Russian paranioa’

Anthony Albanese has told Russia to “back off” after its embassy accused Australia’s security heads of fuelling “anti-Russian paranoia” over the arrest of two alleged spies accused of trying to access classified defence information.

The Russian-born Australians – including one who is an army private – were arrested over an alleged spying scheme targeting the defence department, with authorities emphasising concerns over espionage and foreign interference.

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Belgian police search EU parliament office over Russian interference

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Parliamentary staffer may have played ‘significant role’ in alleged payments to MEPs to promote propaganda on Voice of Europe website

Belgian police have searched the European parliament office and Brussels home of a parliamentary staffer who is believed to have played “a significant role” in a Russian interference operation, the national prosecutor has said.

French authorities also carried out a search of the employee’s European parliament office in Strasbourg at the request of the Belgian examining magistrate overseeing the inquiry into corruption and Russian interference.

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