Embassy in Finland Embassy ● Roster captured

Intel News reported on November 18th that “Russia’s need to gather intelligence from Scandinavian targets has increased considerably since Finland and Sweden joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), prompting Moscow to seek nontraditional means of collecting intelligence, according to Finland’s spy agency. A new report by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) relays a warning by the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (SUPO) that Russian spies are increasingly operating in Scandinavia without relying on diplomatic protection. Human intelligence (HUMINT) operations are typically carried out of diplomatic facilities by intelligence officers who enjoy various degrees of diplomatic immunity. Such protections are seen as crucial for the safety of intelligence personnel, who tend to engage in illegal activities while stationed abroad. However, the number of Russian intelligence officers who are based in diplomatic facilities in Finland and elsewhere in Scandinavia has “significantly decreased” in recent years, according to the Yle report. The reason for the decline in numbers rests with the numerous expulsions of Russian diplomatic personnel — which include intelligence officers — that took place throughout Europe in the months following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Since then, Finland is one of dozens of European countries that have repeatedly denied Russia’s requests for the issuance of diplomatic visas. As a result, Russian embassies and consulates in Finland remain understaffed and mostly devoid of intelligence personnel. In response to this new reality, the Kremlin has been experimenting with using nontraditional HUMINT collectors. The latter are not based in diplomatic facilities and are not protected by diplomatic immunity. Such nontraditional intelligence collectors operate as “journalists or researchers”, according to SUPO. At the same time, Russian intelligence agencies increasingly target for recruitment Finns who life in Russia, or try to recruit them while they are traveling elsewhere in Europe.”

On July 29th YLE News reported that “an extraordinary number of staff have left the Russian embassy in Helsinki since Finland decided to expel Russian spies in June. Several embassy assistants have left the embassy complex in Helsinki’s Ullanlinna neighbourhood and many of those who left Finland had shorter stays than usual working in the country. This information is based on a report by STT, which compared information on Russian diplomats in Finland that has been made public at various times. The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs maintains an online list of diplomats currently in the country. Between the end of June and the end of July, the ministry removed the names of nine Russians from the list, which corresponds to the number of Russian spies who were expelled in June. However, not all of those who have left the country were expelled. For example, a commercial representative at the embassy has disappeared from the list. According to media reports, the individual was transferred to Kazakhstan more than a month before the expulsion decisions in Finland. With the exception of the commercial representative, the group that left Finland is quite private and difficult to track online, even when searched using their Russian names.”

On June 6th YLE reported that “Finland is to expel nine employees from the Russian embassy in Helsinki, according to the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo). In a tweet early on Tuesday evening, the security agency suggested that the Russians in question had been working on intelligence missions in Finland. “This is a significant setback for Russian intelligence in Finland, and corresponds to the Finnish Security Intelligence Service’s counter-espionage goals,” the agency stated in the tweet posted at 5:28pm on Tuesday. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will inform the Russian ambassador about the matter, according to a government press release. The matter was decided by the Finnish government’s foreign and security policy ministerial committee (TP-UTVA) and President Sauli Niinistö, according to the government. A president’s office statement said the Russian embassy workers’ actions were in violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.”

Yle reported on April 26th that “a report by Yle’s investigative journalism unit MOT has revealed that one third of staff at Russia’s embassy in Helsinki are actually intelligence agents. The findings were confirmed by the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service Supo. MOT’s investigation also led to the discovery of the identity of three Russian agents who had previously worked in Finland. The three men were officially listed as belonging to embassy staff, but MOT discovered that they actually worked for the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR, the foreign military intelligence agency GRU or the federal security service FSB. Intelligence agents often work in embassies in roles that do not involve a precisely defined diplomatic mission — which gives them freedom to conduct intelligence activities. “People operating with diplomatic status will be granted diplomatic immunity, which means they will not be at risk of being subject to any kind of criminal proceedings,” explained Detective Chief Inspector Mikko Porvali, who is also the author of several books on espionage. MOT’s probe is part of a wider collaboration between Nordic public broadcasters, in which journalists have uncovered the identities of dozens of Russian spies. A separate collaborative investigation by the broadcasters revealed Russia may be planning sabotage in Nordic maritime districts. Swedish broadcaster SVT identified 21 Russian agents, with as many as 13 of them having been employed by the Russian Embassy in Stockholm until at least April 2022. Sweden said on Tuesday that it would expel five Russian diplomats whose activities were found to contravene their diplomatic status.” The identified Russian intelligence officers were: 1) SVR officer Dmitry Otorochkin; 2) GRU officer Vladimir Komarov; 3) Dmitry Dvinjaninov.