Brussels is teeming with spies, incl. From Russia, a third of the Russian diplomatic staff in Brussels are intelligence officers, according to Belgian media reports. For this reason, the European Parliament has asked Belgium to do more in the field of counterintelligence.

Last June, a Budapest court sentenced former Hungarian MP Béla Kovacs to two years in prison forEspionage for Russia and embezzlement of funds from the European Parliament. The far-right Hungarian politician Jobbik met with Russian diplomats and traveled to Moscow every month. The press even gave him a nickname “KGBela” – The newspaper “Hungary Today” reports.

This is not the only case of a Russian spy in Brussels. The daily newspaper “De Standard” evokes history Daughter of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskovwho in 2019 was a trainee at a French MEP, and in this way he gained access, among other things, to the documents of the European Parliament’s Security and Defense Subcommittee.

Russian foreign, domestic and military intelligence services – SWR, FSB and GRU – have personnel stationed in Brussels. Thanks to the establishment of many international institutions, such as the European Union and NATO, Belgium’s capital has been a spy site for decades – writes “De Standard”.

Belgian media appreciates it A third of the Russian diplomatic staff in Brussels are intelligence officers. It’s a total of tens of people.

“Many politicians and citizens are not sufficiently aware of these kinds of problems,” the European Parliament wrote in a report approved this week. “We call on the Belgian authorities to strengthen anti-espionage protection and to prosecute and punish espionage more effectively,” he urged MEPs.

“We have already identified several cases of attempted intervention by foreign services of very different origins,” a representative of the Belgian State Security Service (VSSE) told De Standard.

The newspaper reported that the Belgian services intend to hire an additional 1,000 officers by 2024.

“New jobs will also appear in the department dealing with counterintelligence, which is high on our priority list” – emphasizes the VSSE employee and notes that the institution takes its role very seriously in the host country of the EU and NATO institutions.