Roughly a third of all Russian diplomats posted in Brussels are believed to be intelligence agents, the infosecurity24.pl website reported.
The city has become a den of foreign intelligence services largely because it hosts both European Union and NATO institutions, the website said.
Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Federal Security Service (FSB) and Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (GRU) have personnel stationed in Brussels, infosecurity24.pl reported, citing Belgian media outlets.
MEPs urge Belgian gov't to step up counterintelligence efforts
According to The Brussels Times newspaper, European lawmakers last week called on Belgium's government to step up counterintelligence efforts as part of the European Union's fight against foreign interference in democratic processes.
“We call on the Belgian authorities to review and update the domestic anti-espionage framework to enable effective detection, prosecution and sanctioning of offenders,” the European Parliament said in a resolution, as quoted by the paper.
The resolution warned of cases of foreign infiltration among the staff of EU institutions, including high-level politicians and officials who take on positions in foreign national or private companies that are state-controlled by countries active in espionage in “exchange for their knowledge regarding the EU and its Member States,” according to the brusselstimes.com website.
'Even information can be weaponised'
The resolution said that "Russia has been engaging in disinformation of an unparalleled malice and magnitude across both traditional media outlets and social media platforms, in order to deceive its citizens at home and the international community on the eve of and during its war of aggression against Ukraine, which Russia started on 24 February 2022, proving that even information can be weaponised."
Belgium’s State Security Service has said it has identified "many cases of attempted interference by foreign services of very different origins, not only from the usual suspects,” infosecurity24.pl reported.
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Source: infosecurity24.pl, brusselstimes.com, europarl.europa.eu