Russian spies are increasingly active in the Czech Republic and turning their attention to the energy sector, including nuclear power, the Czech counterintelligence agency BIS said Wednesday.
Over the past few years the agency has highlighted steady activity of Russian spies, but the report for the first time identified an uptick in the scientific and energy sectors.
"Russian intelligence services do not have competition on Czech territory when it comes to breadth, intensity, aggressiveness and the number of operations," the BIS report said.
While many joint projects between the two countries are legitimate, the presence of Russian intelligence operatives among academics and students poses a potential problem for the country, the report said.
"The Russian intelligence capacity and activity increased mainly in the science-technology and economic sectors, including energy," the report said. "These projects are themselves legitimate, but they get tainted by the presence of Russian intelligence operatives."
Moscow itself frequently complains of increased espionage activity by foreign intelligence agencies against Russia.
Confusingly, Czech intelligence officials said earlier this month that Russian agents had reduced their activities in the country since U.S. President Barack Obama abandoned plans for missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic. The Military Intelligence Agency said in its annual report June 1 that the decline in Russian activities was apparent in the second half of 2009. It did not give any details.
Wednesday's report came two days after the Czech government appointed a special envoy for a tender to expand the Temelin nuclear power plant — a project that will have Russian bidders.
The two-year appointment thrusts Vaclav Bartuska into state-owned CEZ's search for a supplier for the expansion of Temelin and other nuclear units.
Toshiba unit Westinghouse, a consortium of Russia's Atomstroiexport and Czech Skoda, and France's Areva are bidding to build the two new units at Temelin, near the Austrian border, and possibly two other units in Slovakia and one at CEZ's eastern Czech Dukovany station.
(Reuters, AP)