The European Union must clamp down on Russian passports to hinder the work of Moscow’s spies and their “malign intelligence activities”, according to the Czech Government.
The bloc should follow Czechia’s example and ban non-biometric Russian passports, the government has said in a memo to other capitals, because non-biometric passports are too easy to forge.
“As non-biometric travel documents can be easily falsified and abused for other purposes, we recognise only biometric travel documents issued by the Russian Federation, including diplomatic and service passports,” the government said.
“This decision is being implemented from July 15, with two months transitional period, and will be notified to the European Commission.”
The purpose of the clampdown is to “narrow the space for malign intelligence activities of the Russian Federation on the territory of Czechia or other EU Member States, thereby limiting its ability to commit hostile acts”.
There have been reports that Russian agents are planning a series of sabotage acts across Europe, including bombings, arson and infrastructure attacks.
Intelligence services said earlier in July that they foiled an assassination attempt against Armin Papperger, the chief executive of Rheinmetall, Germany’s leading arms manufacturer. The plot was linked to Russia.
The Czech memo was put forward for discussion at an EU meeting of foreign ministers on July 22.
Brussels: nest of spies