Russian “special services” are the most active foreign espionage organizations in the Czech Republic, the Czech Security Information Service (BIS) said on Wednesday.
The BIS 2011 report states that Russian spies work under different covers, mainly at Russian diplomatic missions, and in numbers that are utterly unjustified given the current status of Czech-Russian relations.
“Russian intelligence officers were spotted at different public and corporate events, where they tried to resume old contacts and meet new people,” the report said.
One of their main targets was the energy sector, in particular, the tender for the completion of the Temelin nuclear power plant, BIS said.
“Based on national security risk assessment, BIS’s main counterintelligence priorities in 2011 were the special services of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China,” the report said.
However, it devoted nine paragraphs to Russian espionage and only one to Chinese.
Chinese intelligence officers “do not pose an immediate risk to Czech citizens,” the report said.