Ukraine Releases Names of 600 Russian Spies Operating Secretly in Europe
List includes names, phone numbers, passport numbers, financial details
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Ukraine's intelligence ministry has released the identities of over 600 alleged Russian spies who are operating secretly in countries across Europe.
The intelligence wing of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine published a list that includes names, phone numbers, passport numbers, and in some cases, financial details of Russia's alleged spies.
The Ukrainian government exposed the identities in an apparent attempt to burn the spies and weaken Russia's intelligence operations across the continent.
The agency released the "list of employees of the FSB of the Russian Federation registered at the address: Moscow, St. Bolshaya Lubyanka" on Monday.
The FSB is the successor agency to Russia's notorious spy arm the KGB.
The list was released in Russian and is apparently unavailable on the English version of the ministry's website.
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The list provides names, phone numbers, passport numbers, "registration addresses," license plate numbers, and occasionally financial details for 620 alleged Russian spies.
In a few cases, the list includes a home address.
One alleged FSB agent has a Skype address including the phrase "jamesbond007," along with the characters "DB9," referring to Bond's famous Aston Martin.
Another agent reportedly has a taste for "premium cars," while a third is a heavy drinker who "systematically violates traffic regulations."
A former head of the British intelligence agency MI6 warned that only "10 percent" of Russia's operations across Europe have been uncovered, The Telegraph reported.
"We see the extent of Russian aggressive intelligence activities across Europe," said Sir John Sawers, who led Britain's MI6 from 2009 to 2014.
"We probably only know 10 percent of what they’re doing.
"There will be a great deal that intelligence services do that we’re simply not aware of."
Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly put two FSB agents who reportedly scouted Ukraine on house arrest after Russia's Ukraine invasion proved far more difficult than Putin appears to have considered at first.
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Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) called on the FBI to investigate the Russian Diplomatic Compound, located in New York City, which experts revealed houses diplomats who are in the U.S. to spy on America.
"We have been appalled and alarmed by Vladimir Putin's unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine," Torres told reporters Tuesday.
"We have been appalled by his war crimes against the Ukrainian people, and it is in that context that I have formally requested that the FBI open an investigation into reports of espionage at the Russian diplomatic compound," he added while discussing the white high-rise tower located at 355 West 255th Street, in the Bronx borough.
The Bronx Democrat called it "both metaphorically and literally a structure of surveillance."
