Year of the spy

The outgoing 2020 was a record for expulsions of Russian diplomats from foreign countries and "mirror" answers of Moscow

In general, this practice is old, like modern diplomacy itself. The usual reason (or an occasion) for the expulsion of the diplomatic representatives is their hidden belonging to the neighboring department, in other words, espionage. Or a demonstration of state discontent. In international relations of Russia, this often happens, but so much in one year ...

Once in the 1970s in the colony of councils in Hanoi, the appearance of the same curtains on the rear window on some cars of the USSR Embassy. Shortly before this, the head of the KGB, who served at the embassy in the rank of an adviser, came a new driver and concurrently the head of the fleet of his subordinates.

He showed the initiative and ordered the same curtains from the estimate dedicated to him. And aesthetically, and you can’t see who is in the back seat. The rest of the embassy had a separate head with other aesthetic tastes and accounting. Of course, even before that, many approximately knew who the diplomat was, and who was “neighbor” (as the KGB was called in the Midovsky jargon). But now everyone has known for sure. A few days later, the curtains also disappeared simultaneously.

This case did not go beyond the courier and, obviously, did not affect the Soviet-Vietnamese relations. Local competent authorities knew who was who at the Embassy of a fraternal country and even what exactly was doing. As the consul Sorokin (also from the “organs”) told me, “After all, they have exactly, like ours: we look after enemies and brothers.”

I learned this fact even earlier. We met with Valentine on the veranda of the Khana branch of TASS, where I worked, on Christmas 1972 at a festive glass in a pause between American bombing. Before being advanced for special merits in intelligence, he was a simple KGB operative.

“Inquire,” he threw by the way, “that in the city they say, for example, about yesterday’s night, what moods. And in general, you speak in Vietnamese, you travel around the country, along the “Ho Shi Min” path, you go to the diplomatic engines ”...

At that time, the Vietnamese for talking on such topics with a foreigner, if he at least a hundred times Lyen-XO (“Soviet”) threatened the harsh punishment.

One of my senior journalists was appointed to London. During the Cold War, spy scandals with group expulsions of diplomats and journalists occurred in Soviet-British relations. He fell under the distribution by accident. Meloman and books, a regular in the press of the Brussels contests of young performers named after Queen Elizabeth did not serve in any intelligence, which all friends and colleagues who knew him for decades were convinced. The Brites simply included him in a quota, which was considered enough to “punish” Moscow. And for him, this meant the closure of access to all Western countries, which he really experienced. There was a place in Poland, which at that time in the Kremlin’s ranking was part of the “fraternal” category.

I delved into these memories of the distant years to confirm the conclusion: the expulsion of official representatives is an indicator of a state of relations. Even the “Activities incompatible with the status of a diplomat” in the Vienna Convention on the diplomatic relations of 1961 is not the reason for the expulsion, if the relationship is more or less normal, not to mention good ones. And even more so, if they are still based on similar values, there is a feeling of common goals or civilizational kinship ...

And vice versa, the worse the common relations, the more distrust, prejudice is sharper, the reactions are sharper.

Angela Merkel, in response to the publication of the wiretapping of her phone from 2002 to 2013, strictly threatened with the American intelligence services with a finger. Like, “You can’t listen to friends!” ... And then only because of the loud publicity of this embarrassment by the ex-agent Snowden. It was inconvenient to keep silent.

However, neither sanctions nor the expulsion of diplomats followed.

The German prosecutor’s office for the order began an investigation, but two years later closed the case. It seems that Russian state television channels were worried about Merkel and Germany's sovereignty than she herself.

Another thing is the alleged role of Russians to hack the Bundestag computer network in 2015. Germany, all EU and UK countries imposed sanctions against the head of military intelligence of Russia Igor Kostyukov and hacker Dmitry Badin. The first was forbidden to enter the EU territory and froze European assets, if they found, and the second was generally put on the international wanted list.

Of course, different things happen. Under Yeltsin, the general relations between the West and Russia were relatively good. But in 1996, a mutual expulsion of diplomats took place between Great Britain and Russia. True, the initiator was Moscow at that time. Russian special services revealed a British agent in their intelligence network. Four employees of the British Embassy were sent from Moscow, London answered mirror, Tit for Tat (“Eye for Eye”).

All the time after the end of the Cold War, 2020 became the most productive for expulsions of Russian diplomats. Mostly under the pretext of spy scandals. Either the diplomats themselves, under the guise of their ranks, mined secret information, or were associated with sources from local citizens. This coincides in time and with an increase in the number of cases about the Stateizer in Russia.

Before turning to 2020, it is necessary to recall the most mass expulsion of recent years-in March 2018 regarding the poisoning of the ex-colonel of the GRU and his daughter in the British Salisbury.

Great Britain claims that the Russian state is involved in the poisoning of the Skripals with neuropolitical substance. It categorically denies this. Then 160 Russian diplomats were expelled from the UK, the USA, the EU countries and other states.

In vain were the requirements of Moscow of irrefutable evidence and endless sarcasm about the British formula “very likely”. The Vienna Convention gives the host state “at any time and without reasoning the reasons” the right to declare anyone from the diplomatic staff by Persona Non Grata. In general, political decisions, including sanctions (not to be confused with the UN International sanctions), is a sovereign cause of states. Here the main means of prevention is accumulated trust. And “irrefutable evidence” is useful only in court ...

In 2020, the championship in the expulsion of Russian diplomats belongs to Bulgaria . In January, the Foreign Ministry of this country invited the ambassador Anatoly Makarov to give a note in which he asked for two Russian diplomats accused of espionage to leave Bulgaria in 48 hours.

On September 23, the Bulgarian prosecutor’s office accused two more Russian diplomats of communicating with the Bulgarians who had access to information about the country's military-industrial complex for this. They were asked to leave the country for 72 hours.

On December 18, Bulgaria sends one Russian diplomat. He was suspected of collecting information about US military personnel who are in Bulgaria on exercises. The same 72 hours to return home.

But not only Bulgaria. On June 5, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced the “adequate answer” of the Czech Republic for the expulsion of two Russian diplomats. Persona Non Grata announced two employees of the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Prague. Czech radio connected the expulsion with the so -called "ricin business." Recall. In early April, a monument to Marshal Konev was dismantled in Prague. Then the Czech media wrote that a Russian with a diplomatic passport and Ricin in baggage had arrived in Prague to poison the Prague officials.

The “Ricine case” resulted in the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from the Czech Republic and two Czechs from Russia in response.

All this happens against the backdrop of the case of Ivan Safronov, whom the Russian investigating authorities suspect the transfer of data that constituting a state secret. And in general, the relationship between Prague and Moscow, according to Respekt magazine, "fell below the freezing point." Since 2014, the Czech Republic has been demanding from the Russian embassy so that it reduces the staff of employees from 150 to some “acceptable level”.

On August 16, Slovakia sent three Russian diplomats, who, according to its authorities, were employees of intelligence services. This time, the expulsion is not connected with the events in the small republic, but with its responsibility as a member of the Schengen space. In the Berlin Park of Tirgarten, in the summer of 2019, the Georgians of Chechen origin Zelimkhan Khangoshvili was killed. The German prosecutor’s office suspects a certain Davydov, who, she believes, acted on the instructions of the Russian special services. He received a Schengen visa at the Slovak consulate in St. Petersburg. The Slovak newspaper Denník N writes, referring to the Foreign Ministry that out of 45 Russian diplomats working in Slovakia, at least a third are engaged in espionage. Back in the fall of 2018, the assistant to the military attache of the Russian Embassy, ​​Colonel Vinogradov was expelled "in connection with dangerous intelligence activities."

On August 19, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry sent a Russian diplomat who was connected with a local resident detained on charges of espionage in favor of Russia. Norwegian counterintelligence detained this person during a meeting with an officer of Russian intelligence working under diplomatic cover. The incident remained within the framework of a strictly classified investigation.

On August 21, Le Monde reported that the Southern Military Command of NATO in Naples, Lt. Col., was taken on vacation, was taken into custody. It was assumed that in Italy the officer was engaged in espionage on Russian military intelligence (former GRU), told her confidential documents and materials about the activities of NATO and the Blok members. Le Monde learned that the decision to bring the case to the court is due to the fact that it concerns other NATO members and reflects the desire to address Russia “Hard signal”. The trial does not exclude other consequences, including the expulsion of Russian diplomats from France and other members of the alliance.

On August 24, Austria stated that she was sending a Russian diplomat for "behavior incompatible with the Vienna Convention." In response, Russia sent the Austrian diplomat. No details about the reasons for the expulsion were reported. The newspaper Kronen Zeitung wrote that the Russian diplomat allegedly participated in an economic espionage in a technological company for many years, and a citizen of Austria helped him. This happened two months after the retired colonel of the Austrian army was sentenced to three years in prison for espionage in favor of Russia in another case.

On December 11, the Netherlands announced the expulsion of two alleged Russian intelligence officers. The General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) reported that two Russians are looking for information about artificial intelligence, semiconductors and nanotechnologies. According to her, they work for the SVR. The Russian Embassy confirmed the fact of expulsion, saying that “no evidence was presented” illegal activity and that “response will follow”. AIVD said that agents worked at the Russian embassy and had diplomatic accreditation.

Finally, on December 22, the distant Colombia sent two Russian diplomats on suspicion of intelligence. Alexander Porkistov and Alexander Belousov for two years allegedly engaged in military and economic intelligence.

Intelligence is used all over the world along with legal means to obtain information. The states do not comment on this activity and turn a blind eye to it until it seems excessive to them. Intelligence prefer to extinguish conflicts without attracting attention. A kind of mutually beneficial exchange.

Sending diplomats is an extreme measure and can serve as a symbolic sign of displeasure.

Previously, he was expressed simply by war. Now this method, I hope, is less and less relevant. As the events of recent years show, sanctions are in fashion. But they, like the war, albeit to a lesser extent, are associated with losses, require economic power, resources. The expulsion of diplomats is incomparably cheaper to express their sovereign “fra”.

A related phenomenon, which has become especially widespread in the era "after Crimea" - personal sanctions.

The only difference is that states or groups of states declare unwanted persons not foreign diplomats, but officials and politicians in their homeland. Even very important, and even entire organizations. If the United States can sometimes create iron, then the sanctions become more and more in the European Union.