July 14, 2020
Russia uses an information-sharing process with the US
to target Chechen dissidents, sources told Insider.
The US and Russia have shared more information during
the Trump presidency, the result of a directive from the White House.
But Russia mainly seeks out information about those
who flee the rule of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
"The Russians regularly abuse the process of
sharing information by spamming us with notices about people they know
perfectly well are under police protection because of their threats," one
source said.
Russia routinely exploited a US policy of increased
information sharing to target Chechen dissidents, according to three
law-enforcement and intelligence officials in Europe.
The practice emerged after the Trump administration
backed a policy of sharing more secret information with Russia, in hope of strengthening
relations.
Sources told Insider Russia routinely sought
information on its targets of choice — dissidents who fled the rule of Chechen
leader Ramzan Kadyrov. The US appears to have received little in return.
It is an open secret that Russia pursues
Chechen dissidents and kills them, and sometimes seeks Western help in doing so.
The officials Insider spoke with confirmed the
existence of the modern-day US-Russian arrangement after a former US
intelligence official described it on the JustSecurity
blog.
He said intelligence officials considered it pointless
but pursued it anyway on the orders of the Trump administration.
"There was a consistent push for CT cooperation
with Moscow, coming from the White House, despite near universal belief within
the IC that this effort would be one sided and end up being a waste of time and
energy," the former US official, Marc Polymeropoulos, said, referring to
counterterrorism and the intelligence community as CT and IC, respectively.
The deal led to the arrests of several people accused of planning attacks in St. Petersburg, Russia, The Daily Beast reported.
However, Insider's sources said Russia's attempt to
uphold its side of the bargain was one-sided and self-serving.
All three sources spoke on condition of anonymity
because they did not have permission to discuss the subject publicly. Insider
knows their identities.
The sources said most of the information that came
from the Russians as "help" were thinly veiled requests for
information on the whereabouts of Chechen and other Muslim Russian dissidents.
The dissidents in question had fled the decadelong
wars in and around Chechnya to claim asylum in Europe.
A French police source told Insider: "The
Russians regularly abuse the process of sharing information by spamming us with
notices about people they know perfectly well are under police protection
because of their threats."
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because he did not have permission to brief the media, is investigating the stabbing death of Imran Aliev, an anti-Putin and anti-Kadyrov blogger who lived under police
protection in Belgium.
He said: "The Russian mentality is that any
Chechen who wants independence from Moscow or opposes Kadyrov is an Islamic
extremist terrorist just the same as ISIS and needs to be killed.
"It's a mix of fishing, intimidation, and setting
an atmosphere to make it easier to pressure someone else to turn them over
later. It also allows an alibi for them to shrug when they end up
murdered."
More than a dozen Chechen activists
have been killed in Europe since 2004, with Russian or Chechen suspects linked to either Russian intelligence
or Kadyrov's forces in multiple cases.
Another NATO military intelligence official who
regularly deals with Russian intelligence matters confirmed the nature of
Russia's activity.
He said NATO had limited some parts of its relationship
with the US because of its closeness to Russia. Specifically some worried that
US officials would send them its intelligence.
The official also spoke anonymously because he lacked
permission to speak publicly. He said: "I don't want to say we locked the
Americans out, but we certainly noticed the very public
leak of intelligence to the Russians in 2017.
"This is why key protections of intelligence
information are in place. You can't always count on your friends to keep
secrets."
The NATO official said Russia volunteered little
useful information on Russians fighting in Syria, despite more of its citizens
fighting in that war than any non-Arab nation.
He said Russia instead focused its energies on Chechen
targets.
"If we have this good information-sharing
relationship, and there's all these Chechen terrorists out there, why do we
only get info and requests on bloggers and retired fighters from the
1990s?" the official said. "What about all these Chechens and
Dagestanis in Idlib? Lots of these guys seem to have military training; the
Russians must have something on them. What about Malhama Tactical?"
A third source, an intelligence official with a
central European NATO member, also confirmed Russia's requests focus on
Chechens.
"They use the intelligence-sharing system like
they used Interpol: It's a threat," he said. "It's like the movie
'The Godfather.' You have to spread the rumor to everyone that he's dirty
before you kill him. That way
everyone thinks he probably had it coming."
Mitch
Prothero
