Leaked counterintelligence document reveals Russian concerns about Chinese spying
June 9, 2025 6 Comments
A LEAKED REPORT AUTHORED by Russia’s primary counterintelligence agency reveals deep concern in national security circles about the intensity of Chinese spying against Russian interests, according to The New York Times. The paper said last week that the leaked report, which was produced by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) between 2023 and 2024, offers “the most detailed behind-the-scenes view” of Russia’s counterintelligence concerns about China.
Following the death of Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, the two communist countries became sworn enemies and nearly went to all-out war against each other. But in recent years Moscow and Beijing put aside their differences, prompted by their mutual desire to challenge the geopolitical supremacy of the United States and bring about a multipolar world. Since 2022, when Moscow resumed its military invasion of Ukraine, Beijing has stood firmly by the Kremlin. China has become the largest importer of Russian energy and has provided the Russian military with much-needed advanced technology. The relationship between the two neighboring nations appears to be deeper than ever before.
But according to a recently leaked report, Russia’s national security establishment is deeply concerned about Chinese efforts to dominate its ally by spying against it. The eight-page report outlines “ENTENTE-4”, a counterintelligence program run by the 7th Service of the FSB’s Department for Counterintelligence Operations. The department is known by its Russian acronym, DKRO. The DKRO’s 7th Service is tasked with counterintelligence planning and operations against Asian countries, with China being its primary target.
According to The Times, the DKRO produced the report sometime between 2023 and 2024. The document appears to have been intended for distribution to the FSB’s field offices across Russia. It was acquired by ARES Leaks, a cyber criminal syndicate, which posted images of the document on the Telegram messenger application. The paper said it shared the leaked document with “six Western intelligence agencies”, all of which assessed it to be genuine.
The DKRO report claims that China intensified its efforts to recruit Russians as spies just days after Russia attempted to invade Kyiv and topple the Ukrainian administration of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It distinguishes Russian scientists, government officials, business executives, as well as journalists, as the principal targets recruitment operations by Chinese spies. These operations appear to be aimed at acquiring information about Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, especially in light of Kyiv’s use of Western weaponry and warfighting methods.
Chinese espionage against Russia also focuses on Russian military aviation expertise, as well as on the Kremlin’s deployment of mercenary forces—such as the Wagner Group—in Ukraine and in Africa. The DKRO report claims that Beijing is interested in learning how to set up and deploy mercenary forces in areas of the world that reflect its strategic interests, primarily in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Another major goal of Chinese espionage against Russia is “laying the groundwork” for making territorial claims on Russia’s Arctic regions, as well as on Russia’s Far East, which borders China. These regions contain vast resources that remain largely untapped and have long attracted Beijing’s interest. The same applies to the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia, which are being targeted by “a new strategy” in Chinese espionage, aimed at promoting “Chinese soft power in the region”, according to the leaked document.
Notably, the DKRO report cautions FSB officials to avoid publicly referring to China and the Chinese intelligence services as potential enemies of Russia. Doing so could generate media headlines that may cause embarrassment for the Kremlin and have “negative consequences for bilateral relations” between Russia and China, the document warns.
► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 09 June 2025 | Permalink
intelNews.org 
A very interesting IntelNews article.
Western intelligence agencies are no doubt enthusiastic about newspapers publishing a Russian document indicating major tensions between Russia and China. These agencies would have a great feeling of Schadenfreude, a German word in this context meaning “pleasure at the humiliation felt by one’s enemies”.
The New York Times article is paywalled to most, but RBC-Ukraine has every reason to make a long summary of the 8 page FSB report freely available, here https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/russia-s-fsb-calls-china-the-enemy-leaked-1749306966.html
Nothing new in this report, but nice to read it. China has no friends on the planet in pursuit of their public goal to rule everyone everywhere. Period. The sooner folks wake up to that fact the better for everyone.
It’s not Telegraph, it’s Telegram.
@Anonymous: Thanks for the correction [JF]
The Russians are more worried about Greek/Serbian agents with Australian passports operating in the area like Greece and Serbia than Chinese.
This is further evidence that we have only hurt ourselves by relentlessly antagonizing post-Soviet Russia. From botched shock therapy to arms treaty dissolutions to color revolutions in the border states, there is an endless pattern of unwarranted hostility in the name of “US interests”. Meanwhile, we’ve paid for a worse enemy through decades of trade deficit with the PRC on the order of hundreds of billions per year. We could have had strong cooperation between the US and another power, but we’ve completely engineered a situation where we are alone and incentivizing the other two powers to work together.