Russia stubbornly continues to recruit spies in Latvia 0 14

Publicist Baiba Litvina describes the plot of a typical criminal case: "Forty years old, married, living with his family in Riga. Of Russian nationality, but with Latvian citizenship. Very well established. This is how the prosecutor Martins Jansons from the General Prosecutor's Office, which handles cases of crimes committed against the state, characterizes the Riga resident who was convicted only in February for espionage in favor of Russia. 'The man is basically waiting for Russia to invade and liberate Latvia,' says the prosecutor about the voluntary spy, who himself applied to report on our military facilities to the Russian service without demanding any payment. The accused admitted his guilt, and on February 11, the court confirmed the agreement on punishment reached with the prosecutor — six years in prison with two years of probation supervision.

This is the latest conviction in criminal cases that law enforcement has been investigating in recent years for various actions directed against Latvia. Several initiated criminal proceedings, however, have to be suspended if the accused manage to flee to Russia or Belarus or if at the time of the initiation of the criminal proceedings the person is not in Latvia." "Recruiting residents to obtain information about Latvia's defense sector, critical infrastructure, societal sentiments, and support for Ukraine has consistently been a primary focus of Russian intelligence services in Latvia for several years," the magazine continues. "The most significant threat comes from organized sabotage acts — arson and attacks against critical infrastructure. But psychological operations spreading pro-Russian calls in cities and further online are also dangerous. All these actions carried out by Russian intelligence services in Latvia would be impossible without the active participation of local residents. One group consists of those who gather information to earn money. "These are individuals who really need financial resources, often previously convicted. For them, 300, sometimes even 100 euros are very important, and they are willing to do anything," says prosecutor Jansons. But there are also those who are well-off, 'normal members of society,' and their motivation is not money. 'More for ideological reasons,' says the prosecutor about the spies recently caught."

"In the last five years, 26 criminal proceedings have been initiated for espionage. In just a couple of months this year — already two, and another one for organizing espionage. Mostly, those caught in espionage are Russian-speaking, primarily from Riga. According to the statistics of the judicial administration, in the last three years, 11 espionage cases have been heard in courts, and the process is currently ongoing for five cases. Prosecutor Jansons explains that the recruitment of spies is mainly conducted online in Telegram channels. Contacts are established there, tasks are given, and information is transmitted. To distance Russian intelligence services from the operatives, spies are recruited through several intermediaries — an intelligence officer finds an organizer in Telegram who is off-duty, who then finds another, and then a third and fourth, to whom the task is ultimately given."