Putin's Agents Broke Into The Homes Of Finnish Lawmakers And Left Feces There
- 6.10.2026, 12:23
Russian intelligence agencies have revived KGB tactics.
Putin’s intelligence agencies have long since revived KGB tactics, including breaking into the homes of those they consider enemies, and are now employing them as part of their hybrid war in Europe. About 20 members of the Finnish Parliament have reported mysterious break-ins at their homes, with one politician discovering feces left in the bathroom, according to The Telegraph.
Parliament Speaker Jussi Halla-aho described the number of suspicious incidents that occurred last year as “significant.” According to him, evidence was left in politicians’ apartments indicating that someone had been there, although no signs of forced entry were found, and nothing was stolen or damaged. Ben Zyskowicz, a high-ranking member of the ruling National Coalition Party, believes that Russian intelligence services are attempting to intimidate Finnish lawmakers in this way, to demonstrate that they are “being watched, and to cause them confusion or anxiety.”
After Putin unleashed the war in Ukraine, Finland abandoned its long-standing policy of neutrality, joined NATO, and has actively supported Kyiv. President Alexander Stubb has consistently advocated for strengthening the alliance and taking a firm stand against Russia. The incident involving the break-ins at lawmakers’ homes was the first of its kind in Finland. But the KGB had been using such tactics since the 1960s, writes Luke Harding, a journalist for The Guardian, in his book *The Mafia State*.
The FSB adopted this tactic: agents of the security service also broke into Harding’s apartment while he was working in Moscow. Shortly before he became the first foreign journalist in post-Soviet history to be expelled from Russia in 2011, they left a sex manual there.
Former BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford recalls in her memoir *Goodbye, Russia* that FSB agents broke into her apartment and, as a “calling card,” left “a large, unwashed mark in every toilet bowl.”
Perhaps the most notorious example of such actions is the case reported by The Wall Street Journal in 2023: an FSB agent defecated in the suitcase of a high-ranking American official during the official’s visit to Russia.
Russian intelligence agencies and propagandists use dirty tactics, including against politicians, in other NATO countries as well. Recently, such examples have been observed in Estonia, where presidential elections were held in September, and in Latvia, where parliamentary elections took place on October 3, Euronews notes. In Estonia, a fake website, euobserver.news—designed to mimic the Brussels-based publication EUobserver— a fabricated article appeared linking outgoing President Alar Karis and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda to millionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
In Latvia, a doctored video disguised as a Euronews report claimed that a Ukrainian soldier had killed three NATO servicemen during the Baltic Trust 26 exercises and then committed suicide. It was claimed that the exercises were suspended as a result, although in reality they concluded on schedule. The Latvian National Armed Forces refuted this report, which garnered over 1.85 million views and was actively discussed in pro-Russian communities; Euronews stated that it had not produced such a report.