(Bloomberg) -- American defense firms should be alert for Russian actors sabotaging their operations at home and abroad as Moscow seeks to undermine support for Ukraine, US intelligence and national security agencies said Thursday.
Russian intelligence groups may try to identify and recruit defense industrial base “insiders,” the agencies said. That includes outside individuals eliciting information from staff or unusual loitering by unauthorized personnel, they said.
“US companies, particularly those supporting entities involved in the Ukraine conflict or other ongoing geopolitical conflicts, as a best practice should enhance their vigilance and security efforts,” the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and several Department of Defense agencies said in a joint bulletin.
The warning highlights rising concerns around evidence that Russian intelligence services may be employing increasingly aggressive tactics and recruiting criminals, and may have been behind a string of arson, cyber and other attacks across Europe in recent months.
“Russia’s sabotage activities in Europe increase the risk to US companies abroad and potentially at home,” the agencies said.
President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration has warned allies about the risks of stepped-up Russian sabotage if the US and its allies allowed Kyiv to fire western weapons deep inside Russia.
The Biden administraton’s decision support such long-range strikes, which came to light on Nov. 17, is part of a series of other recent steps, including providing antipersonnel mines and sanctioning more Russian banks, aimed at bolstering Ukraine’s position before the January transition to President-elect Donald Trump, who’s pledged to quickly end the war.
Russia’s sabotage activity has so far focused primarily on European targets, including a foiled plot in July to assassinate the chief executive of German arms maker Rheinmetall AG.
But the US appears to be increasingly in focus. European and US intelligence officials believe Moscow was behind a plan to place incendiary devices on planes to North America through air cargo shipments, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month.
US and European companies have been racing to ramp up production of armaments like ammunition and missiles, to deliver to Ukraine but also to refill their nations’ stockpiles. Companies like Rheinmetall, Norway’s Nammo AS and the US’s Northrop Grumman Corp. have signed deals directly with Ukraine’s industry to support their production.
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