As the conflict between the states continues, a battle that takes another form is still taking place.
By Miltos Sakellaris
The war in Ukraine is still conducted with many and collateral losses. At the same time, o “Ghost war”. A war waged in the “shadows” of every country, by all kinds of agents. In this war in addition to active members of the secret services take part even hackerswho have exactly the same goal as “ghosts”: to steal “sensitive information”.
There are many times when agents operating in the field are arrested. One of them is Valentins Frolovswho was accused of being her spy Moscow in Latvia and how he approached “other spies”. He wanted to build his own “network” of informants in the country. Frolofs said in a statement released to Delfi that the five-year prison sentence was fair and punishable and that his crimes should not be tolerated because “there is no excuse for what I did.”
according to him felt “shame and anger” and only at the thought that the information he had given to the Russian secret services could well have been used in Russia’s military attack on Ukraine in one way or another. In his statement, he apologized to the people of Latvia for his actions. “Those who continue to cooperate with the Russian secret services should stop immediately. I urge you to stop being afraid. Leave your shady career. I urge you to refer to the authorities and admit your guilt, which will continue to destroy your substance anyway. “Not only to stop working against Latvia, but also to ease your conscience – to calm down and regain confidence in the future,” he said.
The charges against him are quite serious: espionage, illegal collection and providing secret information to foreign services. The former spy was found guilty on May 17 by a court in a suburb of Riga.
According to the annual report of the State Security Service (VDD), Frolovs gathered information on the location and deployment of NATO forces in the Baltic states, airports used for military operations, defense capabilities and Latvian domestic policies. Egons Rusanoffs’s defense attorney has called for the arrest to be replaced by bail. Recently, Judge Biruta Horuna agreed and let him out in exchange for 30,000 euros.
China-Russia cyberattacks and espionage
As the conflict between the states continues, there is still a battle that takes another form: the internet. At times great US companies have reported on cyber-attacks by hackers on many security services, government websites and large companies in several countries around the world. The cyber-attacks, in the context of the hybrid war, continue. In fact, it is not uncommon for cyber-attacks to turn against “allies”.
Recent Post of New York Times referred to the emails that were sent on March 23 to the incoming scientists and engineers in many of the military research and development institutes of Russia by the Ministry of Health of Russia. They brought a theme line that offered seemingly tempting information on a “list of persons under US sanctions for invading Ukraine”.
The Russian Ministry of Health may have appeared as the sender of the messages, but in reality were sent by hackers to China, which the Russian recipients intended to open a document with malware. This information was based on the report by the Israeli / American cyber security company Check Point.
According to the report, these emails were aimed at monitoring Russia from China, which once again demonstrated the complexity of relations between the two countries, which are closer to the “common line” against the United States.
It is noted, of course, that despite growing global outrage over Russia’s war in Ukraine, China has refused to criticize Moscow and appears to be closer to Russian propaganda to portray the United States and NATO as attackers in the conflict. However, the Check Point investigation showed that despite the strengthening of ties between the two countries, China seemed to see Russia as a legitimate target for the theft of sensitive military technology information.
