- Russia uses an information-sharing process with the United States to attack Chechen dissidents, sources told Insider.
- The United States and Russia have shared more information during the Trump presidency, the result of a White House directive.
- But Russia is mainly looking for information on those fleeing the government of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
- “Russians regularly abuse the information-sharing process by sending us spam with notices about people they know perfectly well who are under police protection because of their threats,” a source said.
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Russia routinely exploited a US policy of increased information sharing to attack Chechen dissidents, according to three police and intelligence officials in Europe.
The practice emerged after the Trump administration endorsed a policy of sharing more secret information with Russia, in hopes of strengthening relations.
Sources told Insider Russia that they were routinely seeking information about their election targets: dissidents who fled the government of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. The United States appears to have received little in return.
It is an open secret that Russia persecutes Chechen dissidents and kills them, and sometimes seeks help from the West to do so.
Officials Insider spoke to confirmed the existence of the modern U.S.-Russia deal after a former U.S. intelligence official described it on the JustSecurity blog.
He said intelligence officials deemed him useless, but pursued him anyway by order of the Trump administration.
“There was a constant push for TC cooperation with Moscow from the White House, despite the almost universal belief within the IC that this effort would be unilateral and would end up being a waste of time and energy,” said the former official. American Marc Polymeropoulos said, referring to counterterrorism and the intelligence community as CT and IC, respectively.
The deal led to the arrest of several people accused of planning attacks in St. Petersburg, Russia, The Daily Beast reported.
However, Insider sources said Russia’s attempt to keep its end of the bargain was one-sided and selfish.
All three sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to discuss the matter publicly. Insider knows their identities.
The sources said that most of the information coming from the Russians as “help” was shallow requests for information on the whereabouts of Chechens and other Russian Muslim dissidents.
The dissidents in question had fled decades-long wars in and around Chechnya to apply for asylum in Europe.
A French police source told Insider: “Russians regularly abuse the information-sharing process by sending us emails with notices about people they know perfectly well who are under police protection because of their threats.”
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not have permission to report to the media, is investigating the shooting death of Imran Aliev, an anti-Putin and Kadyrov blogger who lived under police protection in Belgium.
He said: “The Russian mentality is that any Chechen who wants to become independent from Moscow or oppose Kadyrov is an Islamic extremist terrorist just like ISIS and needs to be killed.”
“It is a mix of fishing, intimidation and creating an atmosphere to make it easier to pressure another person to turn them in later. It also allows them an alibi to shrug when they are killed.”
More than a dozen Chechen activists have been killed in Europe since 2004, with Russian or Chechen suspects linked to Russian intelligence or Kadyrov’s forces in multiple cases.
Another NATO military intelligence official who regularly deals with Russian intelligence affairs confirmed the nature of Russia’s activity.
He said that NATO had limited some parts of its relationship with the United States due to its closeness to Russia. Specifically, some were concerned that US officials would send their intelligence to them.
The official also spoke anonymously because he did not have permission to speak in public. He said: “I don’t want to say that we lock up Americans, but we certainly did notice the public intelligence leak to the Russians in 2017.”
“That’s why there are key protections for intelligence. You can’t always count on your friends to keep secrets.”
The NATO official said Russia offered little useful information about Russians fighting in Syria, despite the fact that more citizens fight in that war than any other non-Arab nation.
He said that Russia focused its energies on Chechen objectives.
“If we have this good information-sharing relationship, and there are all these Chechen terrorists, why do we only receive information and requests about retired bloggers and fighters from the 1990s?” said the official. “What about all these Chechens and Dagestan in Idlib? Many of these guys seem to have military training; the Russians must have something with them. What about Malhama Tactical?”
A third source, an intelligence official with a NATO member from central Europe, also confirmed that Russia’s requests focus on Chechens.
“They use the intelligence exchange system as they did with Interpol: it is a threat,” he said. “It’s like the movie ‘The Godfather.’ You have to spread the rumor to everyone that he is dirty before killing him. That way, everyone thinks he probably had it.”
