The group is made up of former criminals whose mission entails sabotage, cyberattacks and assassinations all through Europe.
The group, often called The Division of Particular Duties – or SSD – are tasked with “inflicting chaos and unease” amongst Russia’s enemies within the West.
They’ve been blamed for assassination makes an attempt, together with one concentrating on the CEO of a German arms firm, and plans to put explosives on DHL airplanes.
“The SSD might be seen considerably equally to the KGB below the Soviet Union,” Hunter defined. “Nonetheless, the SSD employs trendy techniques similar to cyber operations and operates inside Russia’s bigger navy intelligence construction.
“It makes an attempt to consolidate completely different parts of Russia’s intelligence providers, usually coordinating with and working alongside different Russian particular unit forces.”
“The unit usually targets nations that assist Ukraine or oppose Russia, together with navy belongings, political dissidents, and infrastructure,” he added. “It additionally steadily makes use of strategies which might be tough to trace, using quite a few types of offensive cyber operations to weaken its targets.”
Intelligence sources imagine the SSD was first created in 2023, amid the rising battle between Russia and Ukraine.
They usually use some shadowy characters to get their missions finished. Folks with a prison background are notably engaging recruits, as head of MI6 Richard Moore instructed a Monetary Occasions panel.
Moore mentioned: “The Kremlin cannot use their very own folks, (so) they’re having to do with prison parts.”
However though criminals might be discovered low-cost, they usually haven’t got the talent set of skilled troopers and Moore shared opposition teams “often we’re in a position to roll them up fairly successfully.”
SSD brokers are reportedly concentrating on Western universities and corporations, hoping to recruit younger impressionable sympathizers. They’re additionally recruiting international operatives from nations aligned with Moscow, similar to Serbia and components of the creating world, based on the Wall Road Journal.
In December, the European Union positioned sanctions on SSD operatives, accusing them of orchestrating bombings, cyberattacks, and coups throughout Europe.
The US has already indicted a number of members of the collective as effectively and is providing a $10 million reward for info on 5 brokers tied to cyberattacks towards Ukraine.
The SSD is believed to have already swallowed up a number of rival factions inside Russia’s sprawling spy community. Nonetheless, heads on the Kremlin have denied any involvement with the group.
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