In public, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said that the growing friendship of his country with China is unshakable – a strategic military and economic collaboration which has entered the golden era.
But in the corridors of Lubyanka, the headquarters of the internal security agency of Russia, known as FSB, a secret intelligence unit refers to the Chinese as “the enemy”.
This unit, which has not been disclosed before, warned that China seriously threatens Russian security. His officers say Beijing is increasingly trying to recruit Russian spies and get hold of sensitive military technology, sometimes by attracting unhappy Russian scientists.
Intelligence officers say that China hopes for the Russian army operations in Ukraine to learn more about Western weapons and war. They fear that Chinese academics will set the foundations to make complaints on Russian territory. And they warned that Chinese intelligence agents are spying in the Arctic using mining companies and university research centers as a cover.
The threats are presented in an internal planning document of eight FSB pages, obtained by the New York Times, which establishes priorities to repel Chinese espionage. The document is not dated, which increases the possibility that it is a project, although it appears from the context which was written at the end of 2023 or at the beginning of 2024.
