{"id":29419,"date":"2025-05-08T01:00:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T22:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/igp.org.ua\/?p=29419"},"modified":"2025-05-09T09:04:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T06:04:30","slug":"privatni-rozviduvalni-kompani%d1%97","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/igp.org.ua\/en\/publikacii\/analitika\/privatni-rozviduvalni-kompani%d1%97\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign Private Intelligence Companies Working for the Kremlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Foreign Private Intelligence Companies Working for the Kremlin and Its Allies \u2014 a Problem that Needs to Be Addressed<\/h1>\n

In recent years, a specific area of business has been actively developing in Western countries \u2014 the provision of services by private intelligence companies (hereinafter referred to as PICs).<\/p>\n

Not only domestic consumers, but also external ones have become interested in the capabilities of PICs. The latter often use such services to realize their interests abroad, which are mostly harmful to the national security of those countries where non-state intelligence structures can have a fairly reliable cover (\u201croof\u201d) to organize their work. Under such circumstances, customers can forget about some special measures that require significant material costs or a lot of time. Business engagement of foreign specialists to perform tasks for their own countries removes a lot of the above-mentioned problems. The main thing in such a situation is to find a suitable foreign structure and hide the channels of payment by the contractor.<\/p>\n

It is clear that schemes involving the capabilities of PICs, especially from the leading EU and NATO countries, can be effectively used by the Russian special services to perform intelligence tasks against a third country, and especially against Ukraine and its allies who provide active assistance.<\/p>\n

Such activities have become especially sensitive in the context of the escalating confrontation between Russia and its allies (Iran, China, DPRK) and most Western countries against the background of Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine, deepening Middle East problems, actualization of the issue around Taiwan, etc.<\/p>\n

The situation has reached the point where the leaderships of NATO and the EU member states (as well as these international organizations themselves) are forced to take measures to neutralize the destructive impact of such cooperation on the national security of countries, alliances and coalitions.<\/p>\n

In this context, noteworthy are the efforts made by the United Kingdom\u2019s authorities in relation to PICs.<\/h2>\n

In particular, this concerns the legal regulation of issues related to the activities of such structures in terms of criminal liability of their employees for damage to national security within the framework of cooperation with enemy special services.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lately, the provision of private intelligence and security services in the United Kingdom has become a big business involving former members of the country\u2019s intelligence services. Therefore, government agencies are significantly concerned about the activities of this industry.<\/p>\n

A report by the British counterintelligence agency MI5, published in October 2024, pointed out that Russia and Iran are increasingly involving private intelligence officers and criminals to perform certain tasks in Great Britain. This is a new trend. \u201cA more striking change in 2024 was that Russian state actors began to turn to their trusted intermediaries to do the dirty work, including private intelligence officers and criminals from both the UK and third countries,\u201d reads  the report [1].<\/p>\n

Some of the nuances of the problem have recently been highlighted in the Western media (in particular, Voice of America [2], Politico [3]), which analyzed the statement of UK Minister for Security Dan Jarvis on new guidelines for compliance with the National Security Act. According to him, \u201csecurity professionals have become attractive intermediaries for those who want to do harm to the UK. Private detectives, private intelligence officers, and bodyguards of high-ranking officials have special skills, access to information, and proximity to persons of interest that hostile actors want to exploit\u201d [4].<\/p>\n

The official urged the PICs staff to be vigilant and not to cooperate with hostile regimes (primarily Russia, Iran and China), and gave them a number of guidelines and tips to prevent violations of the law [5]:<\/p>\n