Lithuania’s counterintelligence service has uncovered a stunning revelation: a Russian mercenary leader’s double attempt to foment a scandal in Lithuania in 2020 by presenting a passport in Prigozhin’s name, in an effort to undermine European solidarity. According to the service, the double was issued a passport in Prigozhin’s name and used it to enter Lithuania, where he carried out an informational attack against the country. The aim of the operation was to make it seem as though Prigozhin himself had defied sanctions to visit an EU member state, thus damaging European solidarity.
The discovery was made during a search of Prigozhin’s offices after he fled to Belarus following a deal ending a mutiny by his fighters. Russian media outlet Fontanka.ru published pictures taken during a Russian security service raid of the Wagner mercenary group’s headquarters in St Petersburg, including passports bearing Prigozhin’s name. However, the pictures were later deleted, and a photo in one of the passports appears to match a picture released in 2021 by Lithuania’s counterintelligence State Security Department of a man said to have traveled under Prigozhin’s name.
Yevgeny Prigozhin (Via Yevgeny Prigozhin/Twitter)
Lithuanian intelligence assesses that the document proves the informational attack was executed by subjects controlled by Prigozhin, possibly in concert with Russia’s secret services. This latest revelation has raised serious concerns about the extent to which Prigozhin’s mercenary group and Russia’s secret services are involved in destabilizing activities in the region, highlighting the importance of vigilance and effective intelligence gathering in the face of sophisticated informational attacks and hybrid threats.
The incident underscores the need for international cooperation and information sharing to counteract the activities of entities like Prigozhin’s mercenary group, which pose a threat to regional and global security. The attempt to undermine European solidarity serves as a stark reminder of the evolving threat terrain and the necessity for coordinated efforts to combat it.
