Saturday, March 22, 2014

U.S. Intelligence Believes That Russian Spies Are Infiltrating Ukraine

Armed servicemen stand near Russian army vehicles outside a Ukrainian border guard post in the Crimean town of Balaclava March 1, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Baz Ratner

U.S. Eyes Russian Spies Infiltrating Ukraine -- Eli Lake, Daily Beast

Moscow claims it hasn’t invaded anyone. That’s because Russia is slipping into Ukraine special units of spies and saboteurs, senior U.S. officials tell The Daily Beast.

In the run-up to Russia’s paramilitary invasion of Crimea, U.S. intelligence saw Vladimir Putin’s saboteurs and mercenaries coming, and not stopping at Crimea either.

During the last week of February, a summary of U.S. intelligence reporting said there was a very low chance that the ordinary Russian troops doing military exercises on Ukraine’s border were going to invade the country, according to a description of the document by a senior American official. But the intel report did predict accurately that Russian special operations forces would do all they could to reunite Crimea with Russia—and cause trouble in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Russia’s activities in Crimea have been widely described in the west as an invasion. But while some Russian military forces did cross into Ukrainian territory, the Moscow government still claims that all of its military forces in Crimea are abiding by the terms of its agreement with Ukraine.

Read more ....

My Comment: Russia does not need to send in spies and saboteurs to mess up Ukraine .... the interim government in Kiev is doing an excellent job at accomplishing that all by itself.

1 comment:

James said...

I can't really speak to the article, but the pictures are a little different. All the uniforms and personal equipment I can see are either new issue or have been kept in the locker for "Sunday Services" type of occasions. Why Spetsnaz would wear any of this is debatable.