Failure of French intelligence "businessman" Baku beats Paris again

To be inconspicuous, not to talk, to blend in with the crowd - this is what spies all over the world are taught. And it's okay if a spy in the host country acts under the cover of the embassy - a diplomatic passport in his pocket in case of a puncture and subsequent exposure will save the spy from criminal prosecution.

In the best case, he will simply be expelled, and after some time, when the noise settles down a bit, the spy may well be assigned to another country. In the worst case, until his retirement will file papers in the office of his native department. But those spies who do not have diplomatic immunity face prison if they are exposed.

This is exactly what happened with the exposed spy of the French Intelligence Community Martin Ryan (born in 1988), who was arrested by Azerbaijani counterintelligence on December 4, 2023, but the information about it became known to the public only recently.

By court decision, he will be in custody for four months, during which time many details of France's intelligence activities in our country - passwords, appearances, agents, undercover and uncovered intelligence agents - will surely become known to the Azerbaijani investigative authorities. As they say, a sincere confession makes the punishment lenient.

Of course, the filigree work of Azerbaijani special services at first caused consternation in Paris. They could not understand how a small and distant country in the South Caucasus, whose weight categories are not comparable to those of France, could beat them so professionally.

After Paris recovered a little from the blow it received, they came up with nothing better than to go into "denial," saying there was no spy and no espionage activity against Azerbaijan, and Ryan was just a businessman illegally detained in Baku.  "We consider this detention arbitrary and demand the immediate release of our compatriot," the French Foreign Ministry said.

Of course, the "victim" of a gross mistake. But the Azerbaijani counterintelligence had plenty of reasons and facts for Ryan's detention. After all, thousands of foreigners work in Azerbaijan, but it was Ryan who was charged with espionage. But let the court sort it out. There's something else, though.

It's no coincidence that we mentioned the basic principles of spy work at the beginning. So, our "hero", apparently, poorly studied in a specialized university, since he forgot about them and got "burned". After all, he himself, in his own language and admitted in an interview with the local media that for the French security authorities, he is clearly not a stranger. Thus, from an interview with the ARB TV channel two years ago, some details of Ryan's biography have become known. For example, that he received a degree in military and geopolitical history, and until 2015 worked in the field of military and global security (!?). Agree, this is already a reason to take a closer look at him.

And in 2015, our "hero" suddenly decided to change the direction of work and turned into a respectable businessman. In 2019, Ryan showed up in Baku, where he became the founder and director of the company "Merkorama". And, accordingly, engaged in illegal intelligence activities in favour of France. This is the legend of an illegal spy exposed by the intelligence services of Azerbaijan.

For several years Ryan worked in our country, observed, established contacts with people who could be useful in espionage and who, presumably, did not even realize that they had become participants of the French intelligence operation. But Ryan did not suspect that he was already being "led" by Azerbaijani counterintelligence officers, who scrupulously, bit by bit recorded his contacts and his activities.

We are sure that the subject did not even suspect that he was already being led by the State Security Service officers. Otherwise, without diplomatic cover, he would have tried to leave the territory of Azerbaijan. On December 4, 2023, the mousetrap slammed shut, France not only lost its agent in the country, but also received another painful blow to the ego, already wounded by Baku's unwillingness to see Paris among the moderators of the Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement.