A high-ranking Dutch counterintelligence official warns that foreign governments are recruiting ordinary European citizens for espionage and sabotage. Espionage no longer always requires a professional.
Foreign intelligence services, such as those of Russia or Iran, are increasingly recruiting ordinary European citizens to carry out espionage and sabotage activities, warns Youssef Ait Daoud, the director of the Department of Information and National Threats within the National Unit of Investigations and Special Operations of the Netherlands.
This shift means that authorities are now tracking seemingly ordinary civilians — often recruited online with promises of money or just for the adrenaline of the mission — instead of professional intelligence officers.
“You don’t get a ticket with the message: <<Greetings from Russia>> or <<Greetings from Iran>>”, explains Ait Daoud. “Sometimes the message is simple: Do you want to set something on fire for 5,000 euros?”
His warning comes against a backdrop of a wave of vandalism, espionage, sabotage, and disinformation, described by experts as part of a campaign orchestrated by the Kremlin to weaken Europe.
Russia’s interference did not start with the invasion of Ukraine. In 2018, for example, the Netherlands expelled four agents of the Russian military services for attempting to hack the international chemical monitoring organization. However, the pace and scale of activities have intensified in the four years since the beginning of the war.
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