This week, around twenty-five countries have expelled their Russian diplomats in the aftermath of an alleged James Bond-style assassination of a supposed former Russian spy. This ‘coalition of disapproval’ as The Guardian calls it, feels this murder is a serious threat to international security.
A state who wishes to maintain its national safety and integrity is threatened when foreign intelligence agents can carry out counter-intelligence assassinations with little to no regard to local laws and international treaties. The situation is made even more delicate if the murder was supposedly state sanctioned. There is little enforcement that can be taken when these affairs involve the complications of world politics.
The death of the former Russian Spy Serkei Skripal and his daughter Yulia was allegedly caused by exposure to a military-grade nerve agent. This is not the first time the Russian Intelligence apparatus has been accused of such an audacious form of removing their intelligence threats. The infamous death of Alexandr Litvinenko in 2006 from radioactive poisoning graced the headlines of newspapers around the world.
The scandal and intrigue these events cause are riveting, but it’s also puzzling to be able to witness such ‘cloak and dagger’ counter-intelligence operations so publicly.
Is the methodology of the assassination evidence that Russian intelligence operates under an outdated cold-war policy? What benefit do the Russian state and its intelligence organisations gain if their diplomats (most often accepted by their host countries as active spies) are expelled from their posts?
It would take more than a thousand New Yorker articles, and even more doctorate dissertations to discern the inner workings of the Russian intelligence apparatus. Nevertheless, these events have shed light on how international Intelligence agencies and their operational methods have changed over the years.
One would believe that headline-grabbing activities like these would remain the subject of spy novels and television shows. How close could these shows be to the actual truth if we see such fictional stories come to life? Intelligence gathering and analysis has always been considered a secret affair. With the efficiency and integrity of intelligence practices relying on discretion.
Data and information are highly valued to protect state secrets. It is assumed that intelligence agents are professionals are capable of carrying out their tasks with subtlety whereby this subtlety is part of what keeps the state and its interests safe.
When it comes to intelligence gathering and intelligence protection, some methods are less efficient than others. In an era where data protection is becoming more are more relevant, such obvious activities appear detrimental to the Russian state, which has been historically (in)famous for its espionage activities.
It is unlikely that the public will ever truly know actual truth behind the alleged assassination of Sergey Skripal. It’s also unlikely that the public will ever know the extent of any state’s espionage activities that may be more sordid or complex than we can imagine. But when it comes to gathering intelligence, it is important to be subtle, lest you lose access to your sources of information. For now, it seems, international security continues to be a cloak and dagger affair.