MOSCOW. May 7 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) officials will not even comment on the allegations made by certain Western media outlets that Russian intelligence has stepped up its activities in the Czech Republic and other new member nations in the European Union, SVR press office chief Boris Labusov told Interfax Friday.
The British analytical publication Jane's Intelligence Digest (JID) has published a report alleging that Russian secret agents are infiltrating the official and business elite of new Central and East European EU member nations.
JID quotes a source in the Czech counterintelligence service as saying that over one-half of the personnel at the Russian embassy in Prague are undercover SVR agents and that SVR has stepped up infiltration of Czech political and business communities in order to influence strategic decision making.
"When certain political groups need to resolve internal political problems, they tend to fall back on the threat of Russian espionage," Labusov said. Before it was Soviet espionage, now its Russian, he said.
"Some try to pose as being more Catholic than the Roman pope in promoting Euro-Atlantic solidarity," Labusov said.