Media: Special unit of GRU recruiting saboteurs through social media.

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A special unit of Russia's military intelligence agency (GRU) recruits individuals to perform sabotage operations inside Europe through Telegram and TikTok, the independent Russian anti-corruption project Dossier Center reported on July 23, 2024. Western intelligence officials have reportedly warned about increasing Russian sabotage operations across Europe. According to the Dossier report, the unit is responsible for several acts of sabotage across the region.

Earlier this year, the unit recruited a man in Latvia via Telegram who, on their instructions, threw a Molotov cocktail at the Occupation Museum in Riga. This GRU unit is also reportedly responsible for inciting acts of antisemitism, including one incident back in 2023 when a group of Moldovan citizens painted stars of David on buildings across Paris amidst tensions surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The report says the saboteurs were recruited through TikTok.

The report also found evidence of the unit working to organize left-wing anti-NATO protests throughout European cities under slogans such as "no to drawing our country into war" or "NATO is our common enemy." Germany's Federal Prosecutor's Office announced in April that two German-Russian nationals had been arrested after being suspected of plotting to carry out explosive and arson attacks in the country, including at U.S. military bases. Over the past six months, Polish authorities have arrested 18 people on suspicions of pursuing hostile activities or sabotage in collaboration with Russia or Belarus, according to the Polish Interior Ministry.

Several other suspects have been arrested over the past year in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, and other countries for allegedly spying for Russia or other forms of collaboration with Russian intelligence.

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