"Russian military intelligence is recruiting young people online to carry out arson and other acts of sabotage across Europe. In this week's issue, Joshua Yaffa reports on the Kremlin's secret campaign to undermine the West's support for Ukraine-and breaks down how "single-use agents" are being deployed across the Continent. Some of their missions are small-putting up posters, or picking up a package-while others involve physical attacks, for example setting off explosives and starting fires."
"In Lithuania, you have the IKEA fire. In Poland, you have a shopping center that same year burning to the ground in the middle of Warsaw. You have a warehouse catching fire, a train line being sabotaged. You have some anti- NATO stickers and graffiti going up around town. You have these bizarre cases in France of coffins showing up at the Eiffel Tower, and someone defacing a Holocaust memorial. One researcher whom I talked to calls it a "swarm tactic." Added together, you end up with this picture of general disorder and fissures in society across Europe."
Russian military intelligence recruits young people online as single-use agents to carry out arson, sabotage, and other disruptive acts across Europe. Missions range from minor tasks such as putting up posters or picking up packages to violent operations including setting off explosives and starting fires. Incidents include an incendiary device placed in an IKEA in Vilnius, a shopping center burning in Warsaw, warehouse fires, train-line sabotage, anti-NATO graffiti, and provocative acts in France. Handlers recruit anonymously, offering money or ideological incentives. These dispersed, low-level attacks operate as a swarm tactic intended to create disorder, erode public confidence, and weaken Western support for Ukraine.
#russian-military-intelligence #sabotage-and-arson #hybrid-warfare #european-security #single-use-agents
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