Diplomat in Denmark is 'Russian intelligence officer'
An officer from the Russian intelligence agency GRU has been an official diplomat in Denmark since February this year, according to media reports.
The individual in question is Vladimir Grekov, who has been listed on the Danish foreign ministry’s diplomatic register since February 17th, newspaper Dagbladet Information reports in partnership with Dutch media NRC.
The report is based on leaked information from Russian registers that shows Grekov’s background as a senior GRU officer and soldier in the VDV special military unit, as well as on confirmation from intelligence sources.
Information reports that it provided its information on Grekov to the Danish foreign ministry and toe Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.
In response, the foreign ministry stated that it remains in Denmark’s interests to retain a diplomatic relationship with Russia and that a Danish attache remains in place in Moscow.
“It is in Danish interests that these connections are kept in place in a turbulent time,” the ministry said according to Information.
Experts who spoke to the newspaper, including Jacob Kaarsbo, a former senior analyst with Danish military intelligence service FE, said that they would consider Grekov a threat to Danish national security.
“I can’t imagine anything other than PET [the police intelligence service, ed.] is aware what a man like this can do and presumably will also attempt to do,” Kaarsbo, now a senior analyst with the thinktank Europa, said to Information.
“That will probably be operative and subversive activities – maybe even hybrid warfare,” he said.
Denmark’s government last year expelled 15 persons employed at the Russian Embassy in Copenhagen. PET stated that they were GRU intelligence officers or from the Russian civil intelligence agency SVR.
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The individual in question is Vladimir Grekov, who has been listed on the Danish foreign ministry’s diplomatic register since February 17th, newspaper Dagbladet Information reports in partnership with Dutch media NRC.
The report is based on leaked information from Russian registers that shows Grekov’s background as a senior GRU officer and soldier in the VDV special military unit, as well as on confirmation from intelligence sources.
Information reports that it provided its information on Grekov to the Danish foreign ministry and toe Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.
In response, the foreign ministry stated that it remains in Denmark’s interests to retain a diplomatic relationship with Russia and that a Danish attache remains in place in Moscow.
“It is in Danish interests that these connections are kept in place in a turbulent time,” the ministry said according to Information.
Experts who spoke to the newspaper, including Jacob Kaarsbo, a former senior analyst with Danish military intelligence service FE, said that they would consider Grekov a threat to Danish national security.
“I can’t imagine anything other than PET [the police intelligence service, ed.] is aware what a man like this can do and presumably will also attempt to do,” Kaarsbo, now a senior analyst with the thinktank Europa, said to Information.
“That will probably be operative and subversive activities – maybe even hybrid warfare,” he said.
Denmark’s government last year expelled 15 persons employed at the Russian Embassy in Copenhagen. PET stated that they were GRU intelligence officers or from the Russian civil intelligence agency SVR.
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