Suspected Russian spy targets top security post in Serbia, Central Asia

Moscow has nominated Dmitry Irdanidin, former deputy head of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation mission in Europe (OSBE) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a broad experience in the Balkans, to lead the organisation's mission in Serbia, according to internal documents from O The SEU provided by the REL.

His candidacy was made amid mounting charges from the United States and European governments in recent years for harmful “ ” Russian activities in the region covered by the 57-nation regional security organisation, headquartered in Vienna, reports Radio Free Europe.

Irdanid, 55, is one of 20 Russian diplomats who left Brussels quietly in 2023 due to charges from Belgian State Security Service (VSSE) that they were spies acting under cover, according to a list compiled by Belgian intelligence and independently proven by three sources of Western intelligence, according to the joint investigation of REL, Brussels-based EUobserver news site, Belgian newspaper De Morgen, Belgian magazine Humo and the French newspaper Le Monde.

A source from intelligence institutions called this withdrawal of spies a <x0rast to empty our drawer” after Ukraine's full invasion of Russia in February 2022.

While the Belgian government does not publish lists of accredited diplomats in the country and the Russian diplomatic mission in Brussels does not publish the names of his personnel, REL independently verified the presence of some of the expelled Russian diplomats in Belgium in 2023.

Russian diplomats, who have not been publicly identified so far, were on the list with Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) or its military intelligence directorate, known as GRU.

The Ioranid, whose list of Belgian intelligence identifies him as linked to SVR, is the only diplomat among 20 outcasts who was not declared persona non grata, according to an intelligence source. The source said Russia withdrew Irdanid after Belgium communicated that he would be declared non grata persons if Moscow did not attract him.

Now, Moscow is trying to bring Iordanide back to O The SEU, the Vienna-based multilateral organisation that, until Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, had played a central role in monitoring Russian aggression in Ukraine and efforts to mediate between Moscow and Kiev.

Irdanid listed as one of eight candidates for O mission head The SEU in Serbia following the application deadline on December 1st, 2024, according to the document provided by the REL.

Russia has nominated it even to run an O program office The SEU in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, and the same position in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana.

O The SEU said in an email-sent statement that recruiting for all three of these positions is still ongoing and that it cannot comment on the issue, calling to privacy.

Positions appointed by O leader The OSCE position currently holds by Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen in consultation with current officials and former senior OSCE officials, as well as the host countries of relevant missions, said OSCE spokeswoman Alexander Taylor.

“We pursue a strict recruiting process for all our positions in the OSCE”, Taylor said.

Western officials, governments have accused Moscow of sabotage actions against O The SEU and abuse of the organisation's consensual policies, including in connection with Russia's war in Ukraine, which has now become the biggest and bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.

Russia has criticised O The SEU claiming it “is being reformed to become an annex to NATO and the EU”.

Following REL investigation into suspected Russian intelligence influence on O The SEU, the organisation's Parliamentary Assembly, which facilitates dialogue among member states, appealed to O leadership The SEU “begins discussions and security checks to free the organisation from Russian devastating impact”.

Russia has previously deployed its diplomats expelled from EU states for spying at its embassy in Serbia, where President Aleksandar Vuciq has attempted to preserve Belgrade's traditionally strong relations with Russia, according to a March 2023 investigation by REL.

Neither Irdanid nor the Russian Embassy in Brussels responded to the requirements for comment. The VSSE, too, did not answer.

Balkan Travels

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, hundreds of Russian diplomats were expelled from the United States and EU governments, including those deployed in Russia's diplomatic mission to Belgium and the EU, Brussels.

Among them was Alexandr Studnikin, who was expelled from the EU for <x0 illegal and destabilising”, but resurfaced as O's election observer. The SEU for the December 2023 parliamentary and local elections in Serbia, according to an REL investigation.

Iwardanid's public presence in the Belgian capital was not very significant, though it seems that he arrived at some point during 2023, in a geographical break from a diplomatic career focused mainly in the Balkans.

Public data shows that, since 2009, he served as the first political secretary at Russia's Embassy in Sarajevo and, years later, as head of the O office The SEU in Banja Luka, the administrative centre of the Serbian entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska.

In May 2013, Irdanid was sitting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a meeting with then-Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic at Putin's summer residence in the southern town of Soci. Vuciq, then defence minister and Serbia's first deputy prime minister, was also present.

Later, Indorand became deputy head of the O Mission The SEU in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, seems to have left this post sometime late in 2022 or early 2023.

A source within the OSCE, who spoke on condition of anonymity, recalled that the Iordanide had left Sarajevo for Belgium, and one of the sources of intelligence contacted for this report said he arrived in 1923 and left under pressure that same year.

Journalists failed to find any evidence of Irdanid's deployment at the Russian Embassy in Brussels during his short stay there in a strong contrast to his time at the OSCE in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he provided frequent interviews and made public presentations.

Many of his previous public work with O The SEU in the Balkans concerned environmental issues and promotion of civil liberties.

The Russian government's data that has come up with both residence, vehicles and taxes examined by the REL does not reflect any clear link in the letter between Iorand and Russian intelligence. However, they point to other Russians involved in Belgian spy sweeps, which included Irdanid.

GRU people in Brussels

Among the other 19 Russian diplomats on the Belgian intelligence list for suspected spies, besides the Irdanid, was Alexandr Kovalchuk, who officially served as adviser to the Russian Embassy in Brussels.

Runting censuses list Kovalchuk's registered address, such as Ulitsa Narodnogo Opolcheniya 50 in Moscow, the same address as the Military Academy of the Russian Defence Ministry. This academy is widely known as “GRU Conservator” a reference to the Russian military intelligence directorate.

Also on the list of suspected spies diplomats was Sergei Cherepanov, who served as the second secretary at the Russian Embassy in Brussels. The Russian government's leaked data shows that he had previously worked at the Strategic Missile Forces Academy in Moscow and was registered in an address linked to the 46179 Military Unit, which specialises in seismic and infrastructure surveillance through satellites under the 12th Directorate, which is responsible for nuclear security.

The listed address of another expelled Russian diplomat, Dmitry Zamogilnykh, who worked on the embassy's technical staff, was linked to the 92154 Military Unit, a division of GRU special forces.

Meanwhile, one of the expelled diplomats, Sergei Gudil, had photographed a military facility near the Belgian capital, according to data available publicly in his account on the Strava Masters app.

In July 2021, he posted a photo of the Strava radar station account at Bertem, part of Belgium's air traffic control network, which offers radar data to the Belgian army.

Questions sent to the listed email addresses for Kovalchuk, Cherepanov, Zamogilnykh and Gudil remained unanswered.

According to the list, Belgium's sweeps led to the expulsion of a total of 20 suspected Russian spies, adding 48 previous expulsions of members of Russian delegations to the EU and NATO.

“Belgjika wants to maintain normal diplomatic relations with Russia, but cannot allow these relations to be misused for spy purposes”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Pierre Stevenlynck said.

Developing Threats

While European countries have collectively expelled more than 700 Russian diplomats, including suspected spies since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Western experts warn that the threat from Moscow is under way.

“We saw... a temporary reduction of Russian intelligence services' ability to perform harmful operations in our countries, but it has returned”, James Appathurai, a senior official, said. NATO specialising in the hybrid war, in an interview for EUobserver.

Appathurai said Russia has shifted towards online recruiting, increasingly engaging criminal gangs and unconscious individuals for sabotage acts.

These recruits often don't understand who they're working for either”, Appathurai said. “They conduct arson, sabotaged railways, even attacks on the property of politicians all with Russian intelligence leading movements from darkness”.

German magazine Der Spiegel reported last month that German investigators suspect a wave of car vandalism incidents in the country has been funded by a Russian client and carried out by low-level collaborators under the mask of climate activism.

Prosecutors in the southern German town of Ulmi said four suspects had been detained in connection with more than 100 cases of vandalism, where hard foam had been used to block the car's discharge pipes. The suspects included citizens from Romania, Serbia and Bosnia.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in January, accused Russia of plotting terrorist attacks on undefined targets using aircraft, following two separate incidents in which a DHL shipment caught fire in Lithuania and Britain.

I will not go into detail, I can only confirm the validity of fears that Russia was planning air terror acts, not only against Poland, but also against airlines worldwide”, Tusk said at a press conference.

Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations by Western governments of its involvement in terrorist attacks, including arson, poisoning and attacks on individuals in the West.