An Update in the SpyWar

A Russian Illegal is identified as Moscow focuses its propaganda attention on Britain

Last week’s big news on the counterintelligence front was the arrest of an Illegal belonging to Russian intelligence in Norway. Illegals, which is what Moscow terms its intelligence officers operating abroad without benefit of any official cover, constitute a prize for Western counterintelligence, and Oslo knocked it out of the park with their bagging of José Assis Giammaria, supposedly a 37-year-old Brazilian academic employed at the University of the Arctic in northern Norway. Norwegian domestic intelligence, the PST, was certain that “Giammaria” wasn’t a bona fide Brazilian, rather a Russian spy.

Moreover, the case offered several tantalizing questions since the man in custody had spent the better part of a decade in Canada, collecting academic degrees while perfecting his cover story, what spooks term his “legend.” This newsletter summarized the big questions lingering over this case:

-  Who really is Giammaria and which Russian spy agency does he work for?

-  How exactly did he come onto PST/NATO radar?

-  Was he suspected of being a Russian intelligence operative during his several years in Canada?

-  What was Giammaria’s operational mission in Norway – and did he have one during his time in Canada?

Some answers are now coming into focus. The suspect’s real name is Mikhail Valerievich Mikushin, a 44-year-old officer belonging to GRU, that is Russian military intelligence. He is believed to be a colonel. That Mikushin is a GRU staff officer raises the chances that he had some operational tasking during his years in Canada, which we hope authorities in Ottawa are running down right now. While Oslo is rightly getting the media attention at present, to any veteran counterspy, it’s Mikushin’s time in Canada which raises the more tantalizing questions.