Russian media identifies embassy worker in Vilnius as FSB officer

A member of staff at the Russian Embassy in Vilnius is also an officer at the Russian intelligence service, the FSB, according to information published by RuPEP, an online database of public officials compiled by independent Russian media.

According to his file, Dmitry Sergeyvich Kurguz has been working at the Vilnius embassy since 2023 and has been a member of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the Soviet-era KGB, since 2017.

Although LRT has no means to independently verify the data, RuPEP is considered a valid source by the world’s leading investigative journalism platforms.

Kurguz is one of the two people who harassed a Belarusian blogger Andrey Pauk on April 13. The blogger approached the Russian Embassy in Vilnius following the Russian missile strike on Sumy in northern Ukraine that killed over 30 people.

In the ensuing altercation, Kurguz recorded the Belarusian blogger, while another embassy worker, Igor Alekseyvich Khazov, was filmed hitting Pauk and briefly seizing his bicycle. Khazov handed the bicycle back once the Lithuanian police arrived.

On Thursday, Vilnius Police confirmed it had opened administrative proceedings against an embassy worker for breach of public order.

Russia’s intelligence operations have been severely curtailed following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, when European countries expelled hundreds of Russian embassy staff from EU capitals.

Around several dozen Russian embassy staff were also sent out from Vilnius and Klaipėda.

Since then, Russia’s intelligence services in Europe have increasingly relied on people recruited locally, mostly through secure messaging apps.

Recently, Lithuania arrested an 18-year-old Ukrainian national who is accused of setting fire to IKEA in what Vilnius officials are describing as a Russian intelligence operation.

However, the alleged presence of FSB officers in Vilnius shows that Russia has maintained espionage assets in the Baltic country.

"The official affiliation of [Kurguz] and the circumstances of his residency at the Russian Embassy in Lithuania are known to the VSD and are not currently assessed as a threat to national security,” Lithuania’s intelligence service, the State Security Department (VSD), told LRT in a written comment.

Correction: The original version of the article incorrectly described independent Russian media project RuPEP as a Russian opposition initiative.