The spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zakharova, stated that more than a thousand Russian diplomats were expelled from NATO member states.
Zakharova said that Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croix was “modest” when he said that hundreds of Russian diplomats had been expelled in the last period.
“Why is it so modest… in recent years, maybe there are a thousand in total. They expel, we send new ones, they send them back, or they simply don’t give a visa. I think there are already more than a thousand,” said Zaharova.
She pointed out that sometimes dozens of diplomats are expelled, and considering that NATO has more than 30 members, the number is growing significantly.
Moscow has faced multiple expulsions of its diplomatic staff across Europe since 2018, when Britain accused it of being behind the poisoning of former agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, and called on partners to show solidarity by expelling Russian diplomats.
The United States (U.S.) Treasury Department announced that it has sanctioned two individuals and five entities associated with the Intellexa Consortium ”for their roles in the development, operation, and distribution of commercial spy technology used to target Americans, including U.S. government officials, journalists, and policy experts.“
The Treasury Department identified one of the individuals as Tal Dilian, a retired Israeli military intelligence officer who is the founder and co-owner of Intellexa.
According to a Reuters report, Dilian started the company in Israel but later moved abroad, setting up operations in Cyprus and Greece.
In addition to operating as a single company, Intellexa owns, invests in and partners with other spy firms in a consortium model, according to analysts.
“Once a device is infected with Predator spyware, the spyware can be used for a variety of information theft and surveillance capabilities—including unauthorized data extraction, geolocation tracking, and access to various applications and personal information from the compromised device,” Treasury Department officials said in a statement.
