Russia's Wagner group conducting sabotage operations in Europe: Intelligence officials

Amid rising tensions, Western intelligence officials believe recruiters and propagandists who previously worked for Russia’s Wagner Group have emerged as the main people behind the Kremlin’s sabotage attacks in Europe. The revelation came at a time when the fighter group’s status had been uncertain after a failed rebellion against the top brass of the Russian army in June 2023.

The flop rebellion operation was followed by the clampdown on the group and the death of its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Years later, intelligence officials said that the Wagner recruiters are now pursuing economically vulnerable Europeans to carry out violence on Nato soil.

Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU) “is using the talent it has got available to it”, an official, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Financial Times. The official noted that the GRU and Russia’s domestic intelligence agency (FSB) have both become highly active in seeking to recruit “disposable” agents in Europe to cause chaos on the continent.

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In the past two years, the Kremlin has been accused of expanding its campaign of disruption and sabotage across Europe to weaken the continent’s support for Ukraine in the ongoing war. However, Russia has always denied accusations of conducting sabotage.

Kremlin uses its proxies

European intelligence officials told the Financial Times that Russia has been facing a depleted deployment of covert agents in Europe following rounds of diplomatic expulsions by several European Union countries. As a result, Moscow’s spy chiefs have increasingly turned to proxies to do their bidding.

The Western officials noted that Wagner operatives have tasked this new crop of agents with everything from arson attacks against politicians’ cars and warehouses containing aid for Ukraine to posing as Nazi propagandists. They maintained that those recruited for such operations are often marginalised individuals, sometimes lacking purpose or direction.

“Wagner had a ready-built network of propagandists and recruiters who spoke their language”, one European official told the Financial Times. “Russian intelligence agencies typically seek to put at least two cut-out layers between themselves and agents they want to do their bidding,” the official said.

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“They want some degree of deniability always . . . And Wagner and the individuals that were part of it … have a long and close relationship working for the GRU in this way.” Meanwhile, FSB tend to turn to criminal and diaspora networks it has cultivated abroad. However, the officials noted that the FSB has been less effective in recruiting large numbers in recent years.

The online empire

It is important to note that Wagner and its supporters already had a significant online presence through social media channels, catering to Russians abroad. Telegram channels used by the group, in particular, have been surprisingly slick and adept at pitching themselves, another European official told the FT. “They know their audience,” they said.

This Wagner network’s role in the failed Kremlin sabotage campaign has been under scrutiny by European security officials from the beginning. These Wagner-run social media accounts were responsible for recruiting a group of Britons in late 2023, the officials recalled. With this heads-up, the officials have managed to thwart more attacks.