BREAKING
A first public spy scandal between Russia & China in many years, reported by @meduzaproject. Valery Mitko, a 78-yo ex 🇷🇺 navy captain is charged with treason for allegedly passing to China classified information on Russian subs in the Arctic 1/ meduza.io/feature/2020/0…
A first public spy scandal between Russia & China in many years, reported by @meduzaproject. Valery Mitko, a 78-yo ex 🇷🇺 navy captain is charged with treason for allegedly passing to China classified information on Russian subs in the Arctic 1/ meduza.io/feature/2020/0…
2/ According to FSB that handles the case, since 2016 Mitko was employed as a visiting professor in Chinese Dalian Maritime Unibersity 大连海事大学, and since 2017 has been allegedly cooperating with 🇨🇳 intelligence dlmu.edu.cn
3/ In March 2018, Mitko brought documents to Dalian. His bag was secretly opened, and documents have been photographed by FSB. One of the files contained classified materials (Mitko's lawyers claim that the document was openly available)
4/ A lot is still unknown, so wouldn't jump to any conclusions. At first glance, some elements of the story are similar to some familiar patterns of 🇨🇳 spy agencies' recruitment efforts, see this excellent piece by @vermontgmg in @WIRED wired.com/story/china-sp…
5/ Notable that Russia and China haven't publicly announced any spy cases for at least a decade. Of course, Moscow & Beijing are spying at each other, but there is a political decision not to make court trials and similar incidents public...
6/ This time around it looks like the case was reported to @meduzaproject by Mitko's lawyers and family, while the FSB maintains silence as usual
7/ What's also notable is direction of Chinese intelligence's interest this time: Russian military submarines in the Arctic, which points to Beijing's broader and long-term military security agenda in the region (hardly a surprise for anyone watching). Will stay tuned.
