Growing threat: Russian spy network in Belgium

The Russian diplomat Dmitry Iordanidi, recalled by Russia from Belgium on suspicion of espionage, has been nominated for the post of head of the OSCE mission in Belgrade, the largest European security organization. Many of his colleagues from the Russian embassy in Brussels were less fortunate: due to their espionage activities, they were declared persona non grata.

One of them, before becoming a diplomat, worked in the GRU’s Special Control Service, which specializes in seismic and infrasound monitoring through satellites; another served in the GRU’s special forces at the "Senezh" Center; the third lived in the "GRU Conservatory" dormitory on Narodnoe Opolchenie Street in Moscow.

Russia has nominated Dmitry Iordanidi, former deputy head of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina, who has extensive experience in the Balkans, for the position of head of the OSCE mission in Serbia, according to internal OSCE documents obtained by journalists from Radio Liberty.

His nomination comes amid accusations by the United States and European governments regarding Russia’s "malicious" activities in the European region, which includes 57 OSCE member countries.

The 55-year-old Iordanidi, as we learned, was one of at least 20 Russian diplomats who quietly left Belgium due to suspicions by the Belgian State Security Service (VSSE) of their involvement in espionage, according to a list of expelled individuals obtained by Radio Liberty, compiled by the Belgian intelligence and independently confirmed by three Western intelligence sources in a joint investigation by Radio Liberty, the website EUobserver, the Belgian newspaper De Morgen, the weekly Humo, and the French newspaper Le Monde.

Sources from several intelligence agencies confirmed that 20 suspected spies from the list, who had not been publicly named before, were indeed forced to leave Belgium. One of the sources described this as part of a "spring cleaning" after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Belgian Ultimatum

Iordanidi, identified by Belgian intelligence as someone connected to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), was the only diplomat among the twenty who was not declared persona non grata during the spy purge. According to a source in the intelligence community, Russia recalled Iordanidi after Belgium made it clear it would otherwise declare him persona non grata. This status is a "black mark" for a diplomat and makes their future career in any other country extremely difficult.

Now, Moscow is trying to return Iordanidi to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), an international organization that before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 played an important role in monitoring Russian aggression in Ukraine and mediating efforts between Moscow and Kyiv.

According to a document obtained by "Radio Liberty," Dmitry Iordanidi is currently listed among eight candidates for the post of head of the OSCE mission in Serbia. The application deadline expired on December 1, 2024. Other candidates include representatives from Greece, Italy, Austria, Canada, Italy, and Slovakia. Another Russian, Alexei Lyzhenkov, has also been nominated for this position.

Russia has also nominated Iordanidi for the position of head of the OSCE Program Office in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, and for a similar position in the program office of the organization in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana.

As wrote on social media by a researcher of Russian influence in Europe, head of the Center for Democratic Principles in Vienna Anton Shekhovtsov, Russia is now actively working to strengthen its influence in three OSCE countries: Serbia, Kazakhstan, and especially Kyrgyzstan. According to Shekhovtsov, this is evidenced by the number of Russian nominations for leadership positions in the OSCE program offices in Belgrade, Astana, and Bishkek.

"Usually, a state nominates one candidate — or none if it is not interested in influencing a particular program office. When a state nominates multiple candidates, it signals a strong interest in a particular country," Shekhovtsov writes, noting that Russia has nominated two candidates for the leadership positions of the OSCE offices in the aforementioned countries.

The OSCE stated in an email to Radio Liberty that the hiring process for all three positions is still ongoing and that the organization cannot comment on the matter, citing confidentiality.

Appointments to these positions are made by the current OSCE Chairperson, currently Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen. In the selection process, she must consult with high-ranking current and former OSCE officials, as well as with countries hosting the respective missions, OSCE spokesperson Alexandra Taylor told Radio Liberty.

"We adhere to a strict selection process for all our positions in the OSCE, including mission heads," Taylor says. The OSCE could not say when the competition results will be known.

Western officials have repeatedly accused Moscow of sabotaging the work of the OSCE’s Vienna headquarters and of abusing the organization’s consensus principle, including in cases related to Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine — the largest and bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.

Due to Russia’s opposition, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine was closed following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This mission operated for eight years after Russia annexed Crimea and supported armed pro-Russian separatists in Donbas.

As shown in Radio Liberty’s investigation in March 2023, after the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine, Russia redirected its diplomats, expelled by EU countries on suspicion of espionage, to the embassy in Serbia, whose president Aleksandar Vučić aims to maintain traditionally strong ties with Moscow. In December 2023, we also learned that one of the OSCE observers at the parliamentary elections in Serbia was Alexander Studenikin, a Russian diplomat expelled in 2022 from Belgium for "illegal and subversive actions against the interests and security of the EU."

In the summer of 2024, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, which facilitates dialogue between participating states, called on the organization’s leadership to initiate appropriate discussions and checks to rid itself of Russia’s destructive influence.

Iordanidi’s public trace in the Belgian capital was minimal. He arrived there in the same year, 2023, a few months before he was recalled. This "Belgian period" of the alleged SVR officer contrasts with his diplomatic career, which was primarily connected with the Balkans.

Publicly available data shows that in 2009, Iordanidi held the post of first political secretary at the Russian embassy in Sarajevo and several years later headed the OSCE field office in Banja Luka, the administrative center of the Republika Srpska, an autonomy within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Later, Iordanidi held the position of deputy head of the OSCE Mission in Sarajevo and, apparently, left this position in the second half of 2022 or early 2023. A source in the OSCE mentions that Iordanidi left Sarajevo for Belgium.

Dmitry Iordanidi, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2021

In May 2013, Iordanidi was sitting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during their meeting with then-Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić at the Russian president’s summer residence in Sochi. Also present at the meeting was Aleksandar Vučić, the current President of Serbia, who at the time was the Minister of Defense and First Deputy Prime Minister.

Dmitry Iordanidi (third from the right) at the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Tomislav Nikolić

Neither Iordanidi nor the Russian embassy in Brussels responded to our requests for comment, as did the Belgian State Security Service.

Spies on Bicycles

Among the 19 other Russian diplomats listed in the compiled Belgian intelligence list of potential spies along with Iordanidi was Alexander Kovalychuk, who officially held the position of adviser at the Russian embassy in Brussels.

Leaked residential registration data indicates that Kovalychuk was registered at the address: Moscow, Narodnoe Opolchenie Street, 50 — the same address as the Military Academy of the Russian Defense Ministry. The academy is widely known as the "GRU Conservatory."

GRU Headquarters in Moscow

Also listed among the potential spy diplomats was Sergey Cherepanov, who held the position of second secretary at the Russian embassy in Brussels. According to leaked Russian governmental records, he previously worked at the Academy of Strategic Missile Forces in Moscow and was registered at an address associated with military unit 46179. This is the GRU Special Control Service, which specializes in seismic and infrasound monitoring via satellites as part of the 12th Department of the Ministry of Defense, responsible for nuclear safety.

The residence address of another expelled Russian diplomat, Dmitry Zamogilnykh, who worked in the technical personnel of the embassy, is associated with military unit 92154, a special unit in the closed military town "Senezh" in Solnechnogorsk.

Several expelled Russian embassy staff in Belgium left traces of their presence in this country in the sports application Strava.

For example, Sergey Gudilin, who served as a "technical employee" at the embassy, regularly published his workouts in this app. During his cycling rides around the Belgian capital, Gudilin photographed military sites, such as the Bersem radar station, a "key national defense and air traffic control facility" in Belgium. According to a post on his wife’s account on VKontakte, the family lived in Italy from 2011 to 2015.

Gudilin has several times "liked" the workouts of another Russian embassy employee in Belgium, Maxim Tsarkov, who, according to the list we obtained, worked there as a third secretary and was an SVR employee. His last bike ride around Brussels was on September 7, 2023, and by December 6, he was skiing in Moscow.

Some expelled Russian embassy employees in Belgium have already found new jobs in other Russian diplomatic missions. For instance, Andrey Kuznetsov, formerly a trade representative in Brussels, who, according to intelligence, was an SVR employee, now holds the same position at the Russian embassy in Malaysia, while the former attaché at the Brussels embassy, Alexander Vyskrebentsev, who likely also worked for external intelligence, is now an attaché at the Russian embassy in Thailand.

Inquiries sent to the email addresses listed in the records for Kovalychuk, Cherepanov, Zamogilnykh, Tsarkov, Gudilin, and Vyskrebentsev went unanswered. Current contacts for Kuznetsov were not found in open sources or leaked databases.

Rising Threat

Twenty suspected Russian spies, whose list was studied by "Radio Liberty," left Belgium in 2023. In addition to them, earlier 48 members of Russian delegations to the EU and NATO, based in Brussels, had also been expelled. One such person, Denis Pavlov, was transferred from the Russian delegation to the EU to work in Africa to establish relations with representatives of the security agencies of the Central African Republic following the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, as "Radio Liberty" found out in December 2023.

"Belgium wants to maintain normal diplomatic relations with Russia, but cannot allow these relations to be used for espionage purposes," said Pierre Steverlinck, a spokesperson for the Belgian Foreign Ministry, in response to our request for comment.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, NATO countries have collectively expelled about 700 Russian diplomats, including suspected spies. However, Western experts warn that the threat from Moscow continues to evolve.

"We have observed some reduction in the [Russian intelligence] capabilities to conduct destructive intelligence operations in our countries, but now this activity has resumed," said James Appathurai, NATO’s Deputy Secretary-General for Innovation, Hybrid Actions, and Cybersecurity, in a conversation with EUobserver journalists.

Appathurai noted that Russia has shifted its focus to online recruitment, increasingly involving criminal groups and unsuspecting individuals in sabotage activities.

"Those recruited in this way often don’t even realize who they’re working for," Appathurai says. "They commit arson, derail trains, attack politicians’ property — all orchestrated by Russian intelligence."

The German magazine Der Spiegel reported last month that, according to German investigators, a series of vandalism acts against cars in the country was financed by a Russian sponsor, carried out under the guise of environmental activism.

Growing Threat

20 suspected Russian spies, whose list was examined by “Radio Liberty,” left Belgium in 2023. Besides them, 48 members of Russian delegations to the EU and NATO, based in Brussels, had also been expelled earlier. One of these individuals, Denis Pavlov, as “Radio Liberty” discovered in December 2023, was transferred from the Russian representation at the EU to work in Africa to establish connections with law enforcement agencies of the Central African Republic following the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin.

“Belgium wants to maintain normal diplomatic relations with Russia, but it cannot allow these relations to be used for espionage purposes,” stated Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pierre Stéverlynck in response to our request for comment.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, NATO countries have collectively expelled approximately 700 Russian diplomats, including suspected spies. However, Western experts warn that the threat from Moscow continues to evolve.

“We have seen some reduction in the ability of [Russian intelligence services] to conduct disruptive intelligence operations in our countries, but now this activity has resumed,” said James Appathurai, NATO Deputy Secretary General for Innovation, Hybrid Actions, and Cybersecurity, in a conversation with EUobserver journalists.

Appathurai noted that Russia has shifted its focus to online recruitment, increasingly involving criminal groups and unsuspecting individuals in subversive activities.

“Those recruited in this way often do not even realize who they are working for,” says Appathurai. “They commit arson, derail trains, attack politicians’ property — all of this is orchestrated by Russian intelligence.”

The German magazine Der Spiegel reported last month that, according to German investigators, a series of vandalism acts against cars in the country was funded by a Russian client and carried out under the guise of environmental activism.

The prosecution in the German city of Ulm reported the arrest of four suspects involved in more than 100 acts of vandalism during which foam sealant was poured into car exhaust pipes. Among the detainees were nationals from Romania, Serbia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina.

In January, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused Russia of planning terrorist attacks against unspecified targets using air transport after two incidents in Lithuania and the UK, during which packages sent via DHL caught fire for no apparent reason.

“I will not go into details, but can only confirm the justified concerns that Russia planned acts of air terror not only against Poland but also against airlines worldwide,” said Tusk at a press conference.

Author: Marek Krutov, Carl Schreck, Sergey Dobrynin, Rijn Alyas

Source: Radio Liberty

James Smith