Russia is recruiting Europeans for training camps in the Balkans — Politico
The Kremlin has set up a large-scale network to recruit citizens of European countries to carry out destabilization campaigns and hybrid operations.
This is reported by Politico.
Russian agents lure young people with offers of “easy money” for a two-week outdoor vacation, which in reality turns out to be intensive training in special camps in Bosnia and Serbia.
Volunteers are offered between $300 and $500 for participating in such trips, after which they come under the direct supervision of coordinators from Moscow.
The main goal of this activity is to create a network of trained operatives to organize mass riots and sabotage in European Union countries, particularly in France and Germany.
The training program at the Balkan camps includes mastering the skills of operating attack drones, working with incendiary devices, and practicing tactics for countering law enforcement.
According to Moldovan intelligence, the instructors at these centers are individuals linked to the Russian mercenary group “Wagner.”
In addition to physical training, participants are assigned specific reconnaissance tasks.
In particular, there have been documented cases where “tourists” were sent to cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to map the locations of government buildings and identify sites for launching drones.
One of the detainees, a 22-year-old native of occupied Transnistria, spoke about attempts to deploy agents during Euro 2024 in Germany.
Russian handlers attempted to stage a provocation involving a Ukrainian flag at the Slovakia-Ukraine match, intending to later use this for propaganda against the President of Ukraine.
As a reminder, the SBU is issuing warnings about enemy recruitment following the terrorist attack in Bucha.
The Kremlin has also implemented a hybrid scheme for covertly recruiting foreigners for the war.
