The romance of a Spanish NATO commander with a citizen of Russian origin whom he met on Tinder has shaken the Atlantic Alliance. The military officer, who was stationed at the British base in Northwood — the main command center for all naval operations of the Alliance — was investigated by the security services of the military organization and by Spain, for fear that he could be a breach for Russian espionage. The senior naval officer was suspended in the summer of last year, according to an investigation by the newspaper The Telegraph, which has had access to the judicial documents of the case.
The case of the Spanish commander has once again brought to the table the security concerns of the intelligence services of allied countries and community institutions about the risk of espionage in dating applications. In April 2023, German counterintelligence services warned that Russian spies were using Tinder to contact German politicians and soldiers in order to obtain intelligence related to the war in Ukraine. The head of Australia’s national security agency warned about the vulnerabilities of dating apps in 2022. The apps can serve to geolocate soldiers and military personnel on the front, to extract information and make contact with targets, and also to recruit, according to a report by EUvsDisinfo.
The Spanish military officer, now sidelined, met his partner, J. W., through the Tinder dating app at the end of 2024. She, 49 years old, of Russian origin and with dual Polish and British nationality, had just separated from her husband. The Spaniard had also broken off his relationship with his wife, with whom he shares two children. Shortly after meeting, they moved in together, according to the British newspaper, and he began taking his new partner to some events. That was what triggered the alarms in the military organization.
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The Northwood base (northwest of London) is NATO’s main nerve center responsible for monitoring, tracking, and containing Russian naval activity in Europe’s strategic waters and is in charge, among other things, of overseeing critical underwater infrastructure and the so-called Kremlin shadow fleet, with which Moscow evades sanctions to move its hydrocarbons.
The Spanish commander, whose identity has not been disclosed, and J. W have already broken off their relationship and the military officer has returned to Spain. The woman has denied, in a conversation with The Telegraph, that she is a Russian spy. She told the British newspaper that during a trip to Saint Petersburg to visit her sick father, a Russian intelligence officer contacted her and invited her for coffee. During that conversation, the officer questioned her about the security investigation that NATO has opened and about her relationship with the Spanish commander. She says she told him that the military officer did not talk about work at home. “He was very kind and brought me good coffee,” she recounted.
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