Many of us associate Cyprus with immaculate beaches, hordes of visitors, and offshore businesses. But this Mediterranean island has also developed into one of Europe’s primary breeding grounds for Kremlin spies. Let’s examine how Russian intelligence operatives prepared an operation against the family of a senior Ukrainian military official in Cyprus while posing as journalists and diplomats, and why the scheme eventually backfired.
Cultural institutions, Russian schools, and “coordination councils of compatriots” are just a few of the seemingly innocent-seeming ways that Russian operatives in Cyprus operate. However, true espionage networks frequently hide behind this front of “cultural diplomacy.”
Investigative reporter Boris Demash, a Cypriot, discussed the actions of Russian intelligence services on the island.
“Cyprus is Moscow’s backyard. Russian agents infiltrate Europe through here.”
Pseudo-public groups function openly, but “the main agents of Russian intelligence are located in the embassy and the Russian cultural center,” the journalist claimed. The Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots in Cyprus is one group Yuri Pyanykh founded in 1995. Fascinatingly, Demash claims that Pyanykh was a Soviet and Russian intelligence operative and is still actively involved in Kremlin activities while posing as a businessman. Not even the Russian ambassador to Cyprus has diplomatic experience. He is a security officer. Lieutenant General of the FSB Murat Zyazikov assumed leadership of the Russian embassy in September 2022.
The main character in this story is Alexander Gasyuk, a Russian journalist and correspondent for “Rossiyskaya Gazeta.” Gasyuk arrived in Cyprus in the spring of 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion of #Ukraine began. According to the publication “Dossier,” American intelligence services provided Cypriot colleagues with information about the “journalist’s” work for Russian intelligence. Gasyuk was arrested and deported for espionage, assisted by Daniil Doinikov, a Russian embassy employee who, according to the investigator, also has ties to the FSB.
With assistance from Russian embassy worker Daniil Doinikov, Gasyuk was apprehended and deported on charges of espionage. The investigation claims that the diplomat is connected to the FSB as well. When Doinikov attempted to take Gasyuk away from Cypriot police officials, he even caught the attention of the local media. He leaped onto the bonnet of the police car that was leaving and rode for a few meters. Finally, Doinikov was also taken into custody.
As it turned out, Gasyuk and Doinikov were bugging the Limassol apartment of a senior Ukrainian military officer, whose family had relocated there at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Demash said the Russian intelligence plot was foiled because of the intervention of a “small democratic country in the Middle East.” “The intelligence services of this Middle Eastern country identified spy Doinikov immediately after he arrived in Cyprus” mentioned the journalist.
Then, Cypriot intelligence learned that Gasyuk and his collaborator were preparing a real threat to the lives of the Ukrainian family, not merely an information strike. As he watched the apartment, Gasyuk was apprehended.
“Gasyuk was not just a propagandist; he was a spy working for Russian intelligence. This became clear when he was arrested, and American services informed the Cypriots about his activities”.
Gasyuk was told to leave Cyprus after his temporary residency status was canceled “on security grounds,” according to a feature on the Cypriot television channel AlphaNews. The Russian embassy’s and Gasyuk’s protest appeals to the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not have the desired outcome. Under false pretenses as a journalist, the Russian security guard was sent back to Moscow via Dubai. Doinikov, his collaborator, was simply freed on the grounds of diplomatic immunity.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was startled by this incident. The Kremlin could not comprehend how an active intelligence operative could be arrested, made public, and shamefully removed from an island so much under their jurisdiction. “The brazen expulsion from the Republic of Cyprus of ‘Rossiyskaya Gazeta’ correspondent A. G. Gasyuk, preceded by an organized special operation exerting psychological pressure on the Russian journalist and his family, culminating in the brutal beating of the media representative causing injuries,” responded especially sarcastically and indignantly the very next day, according to Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Ministry.
The example of Gasyuk and Doinikov is but one of numerous instances. Hundreds of Russian spies are working on the island. They operate as businesspeople, journalists, or even IT experts. Demash discovered during one of his investigations that 20–30% of Russian IT specialists who relocated to Cyprus were actually Russian intelligence operatives. They live in the EU, yet they still work for the Kremlin.
This threat further intensifies with the introduction of the “blue card” for citizens of other countries. Any person of Russia can now apply for the right to live in Cyprus and subsequently travel across Europe.
The EU should take a very close look at countries like Cyprus and Hungary, which allow entire networks of Russian spies, assassins, and agents to be deployed on their territory. Thus, they become the launching point for Russian intelligence’s legitimate invasion of the European Union.
