Russia is recruiting amateur criminal gangs to spy in UK & carry out sabotage across Europe, ex-CIA analyst warns
RUSSIA is recruiting amateur criminal gangs to spy on Britain and conduct sabotage operations in Europe, an ex-CIA analyst has warned.
David McCloskey, a former intelligence analyst, also described how spies have become more important than ever in the wake of increasing global tensions.
But he said human intelligence operations have now become "massively complicated" and spies are having to use "exotic forms of cover" to remain undetected.
It comes as a number of individuals have been arrested within the UK over allegations of spying for Russia, Hong Kong and other nations in recent months.
Mr McCloskey, who was recruited by the CIA at 19 and spent eight years working at field stations in the Middle East, told The Sun: "I think that human intelligence operations against those targets (Russia and China), particularly in country, have become massively complicated.
"You had the CIA and SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) running agents in Russia in the 1980s.
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"A lot of the principles of that tradecraft still apply, like case officers who work for CIA under diplomatic cover in Moscow meeting agents on the street.
"But that kind of thing is getting harder and harder. You're seeing a spy services who still have an enduring interest in those targets, like the Russians, now recruiting criminal networks in the UK to do some of their work.
"What we'll [the West] be trying to do is use a lot more officers who are commercially covered and have different, more exotic forms of cover for operations in places like China and Russia. I think that's going to become much more prevalent going forward."
Mr McCloskey was speaking alongside espionage author and BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera ahead of the launch of .
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Mr Corera detailed how Russia has had sleeper agents based in the UK for decades, but are now turning to amateur criminal networks.
He said: "Some [spies] have been rounded up in the last few years, lots of interesting cases, they're going to have more.
"You're also seeing some of those countries activate some of their networks, because there's a crisis going on.
"You're also seeing some of them recruit criminals and proxies, and sometimes Brits to do their their handiwork for them.
"The traditional sleeper agent, under deep cover Russian spy will certainly still be there.
"But there's also a of lot of what could look a bit more amateurish networks of criminals, other nationalities, sometimes Brits, that are being pulled up and run remotely over telegram or recruited to do things.
"They can still be dangerous and quite effective for the countries that are using them.
"And because we're in this era of instability and geopolitical competition, a lot more countries are interested in not just gathering intelligence, but doing things like sabotage and are activating and building networks to do that, including in the UK."
But while arrests have been made in the UK in recent months, Mr McCloskey said the US and UK will still have their own agents operating in Russia and China.
He added: "The CIA has made a lot of fuss over the past couple years about a general shift away from supporting massive counter-terrorism operations and land wars in the Middle East towards what has been more of the CIA's bread and butter, trying to collect on near peer geopolitical rivals like Russia and China.
"The CIA officially published stuff about the goals for the China mission centre, for example, over the next few years, and they have made no small bones about getting more Mandarin-speaking case officers and analysts."
It comes after MI5 director-general warned Russian spies are on a "mission to generate mayhem" on the streets of Britain.
Ken McCallum also warned that the range of threats faced by the UK are "the most complex and interconnected we've ever seen".
It comes as six suspected Russian spies, all Bulgarian nationals, are currently awaiting trial in the UK accused of espionage.
Orlin Roussev, 45, Bizer Dzhambazov, 41, Katrin Ivanova, 31, Ivan Stoyanov, 31, and Vanya Gaberova, 29, allegedly conspired to gather information that would be useful to an enemy between August 2020 and February this year.
Tihomir Ivanov Ivanchev, 38, became the sixth suspected spy after he was arrested in February.
Suspected Russian intelligence agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were also poisoned by Novichok in Salisbury in March 2018.
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, later revealed to be using pseudonyms and whose actual names were Dr Alexander Mishkin and Colonel Anatoliy Chepiga, are accused of carrying out the attack.
Despite rising tensions and the conflict in Ukraine, the pair insist neither Russia, the US nor Nato want a war or to use nuclear weapons.
However, Mr Corera said "we've moved up the ladder" towards a global conflict with the firing of US and British missiles towards Russia by Ukraine this week.
He continued: "On the one hand, if you'd said to me a few years ago that Russia's carrying out sabotage operations all over Europe, and American missiles are being fired into Russian territory, I'd have been astonished and said that suggests we're on the verge of war.
"But the reality is, we're still in a situation where neither Russia nor the US and NATO want a war, or for it to go nuclear - it's not in Russia's interests.
"There's a lot of talk about nuclear weapons and Putin brandishing them to try and get us to back down.
"Having said that, there is always a risk that things get out of hand, that each side feels they need to escalate.
"And that suddenly you get to a place where neither side wants to be, which is something close to conflict.
"And I think we've, you know, we've moved up the ladder quite steadily over the last couple of years of escalation."
It comes as fears are growing of more Russian sabotage after a second vital undersea internet cable was cut this week.
The 1,200km cable from Finland to Germany stopped working on Monday - less than a day after the link from Lithuania and Sweden's Gotland Island went out of service.
Putin has also warned he could strike British and US targets hours after blasting Ukraine with a new kind of hypersonic missile.
In a televised address on Thursday, the Russian leader said military facilities inside the UK and US could become valid targets.
It came as a direct response to Ukraine's use of ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles.
He said: "Russia considers itself entitled to use weapons against military facilities of countries that permit the use of their weapons against Russia.
"Since this moment, as we have underscored repeatedly, the conflict in Ukraine, provoked by the West, has acquired elements of global nature."
He warned that it could use the weapon against countries that have allowed Kyiv to use its missiles to strike Russia.
And that there is currently no means to counter such a weapon.
The dictator added: "If necessary, we will choose targets for destruction. There are currently no means to counter such weapons. It is impossible.
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"'I recommend that the ruling elites of those countries which are considering allegiance against Russia seriously consider this."
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