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One of Latvia’s intelligence services has warned its citizens that there may be Russian saboteurs and spies in their midst, and given them a handy guide on how to spot them.
In its annual report, the Baltic state’s Defence Intelligence and Security Service, known as MIDD, offered advice to its nearly two million-strong population on how to scope out possible operatives sent by Russia who are flying beneath the radar.
A shabby, unkempt appearance and “insufficient hygiene” might be one telltale sign an agent has gone underground. Other red flags include overly nosy small talk with locals, a short, military-style haircut, or tourists who do not know the terrain but have an unusual amount of outdoor survival equipment such as specialised medical kits, maps or radios.
MIDD, one of three Latvian security agencies, said such giveaways could help citizens ferret out agents casing “critical infrastructure and military facilities” for sabotage, plotting targeted killings or fomenting unrest.
It said Russian operatives had upped their game in recent years, with training in chameleon-like disguises that made them harder to detect.
“The Ukrainian experience shows that Russian special services are able to adapt to the environment and circumstances in which reconnaissance-saboteur groups are used,” MIDD said. “Their members may not visually correspond to the classic reconnaissance-saboteur profile.”
The agents may be part of groups lingering near sensitive sites, posing as humanitarian workers or sleeping in remote areas without showing any interest in nature, the agency added.
However, the security service cautioned ordinary citizens against vigilante actions on suspected Russian agents, stressing that police and the military were best equipped to take over when suspicion arose.
Latvia’s public broadcaster reported that state security had issued similar but less detailed spy-spotting tips for the public to report suspicious activity two years ago, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
As tensions with the west have soared, EU and Nato member states have been on high alert for Russian sabotage amid a wave of cyber-attacks, arson and undersea cable damage blamed on Moscow. The Kremlin has denied the allegations.
On Wednesday, German federal prosecutors said three Ukrainian nationals had been arrested on suspicion of plotting parcel bomb attacks in Germany on behalf the Russian state.
Last July, European security agencies were alarmed by three separate explosions in packages sent from Lithuania which detonated in Birmingham, in the UK; Leipzig, in Germany; and near Warsaw, in Poland. Intelligence services suspect a Russian-engineered campaign.
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The latest German case has prompted calls from officials to step up the country’s defences against hybrid threats.
Thomas Strobl, the German interior minister of Baden-Wuerttemberg state where one of the trio was arrested, compared the impact of the plot coming to light to a “tectonic quake”.
“We must adjust to new risk situations,” he said. “We are not at war, but also no longer truly at peace.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
