Officials say Russia recruits sympathizers online to sabotage Europe

The suspect, a German citizen born in Russia, was discussing the possible purposes of an encrypted messaging app in Germany – including the US facility in the city of Grafenwoehr – with a man linked to Russia’s military data service. Six Western security officials.

Dieter Schmidt, 39, and an alleged co-conspirator were charged with espionage in April, the first arrest in Germany of alleged saboteurs working for Moscow. Within months, Europe is grappling with a sharp increase in Moscow-led sabotage attacks or conspiracies as Russia turns its attention to raising the price of Western aid to Ukraine.

“Russia is fighting the West in the West, in the Western region,” said a senior NATO expert who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive subject matter. “Our attention is really focused on this.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “almost every ally” at the NATO meeting in Prague raised the issue of “the Kremlin … intensifying its hybrid attacks against front-line states, NATO members, setting fires and ransacking supply warehouses.” “, disregarding maritime boundaries and demarcation in the Baltics, increasing cyber attacks, and continuing to spread misinformation.”

Questions about how Moscow will escalate its efforts and how the West will respond will consume a portion of this moment’s NATO summit in Washington. Western officials say the Russian operations they have detected appear to be designed as cover for a notable armed attack designed to stoke unease among crowds, and their numbers are growing.

In Britain, in April four people were charged with arson at a London storage facility holding aid supplies for Ukraine; The government said the attack was paid for with Russian information. In early May, a fire broke out at the Diehl gun factory outside Berlin – and investigators said they were probing a possible link to Russian data. In Poland, also in May, an arson attack burned down a mall outside Warsaw and nearby Polish police arrested nine people, alleging they were part of a Russian group involved in “assault, arson and attempted arson”. These included an arson attack on a paint manufacturing facility in Wrocław and an Ikea pack in Lithuania.

In June, French police arrested a Russian-Ukrainian twin for allegedly planning the violent possession of materials intended to make an explosive device in her hotel room outside Paris after an accidental explosion in her room. Was found. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said a Latin American man accused of attempted arson at a bus depot in Prague was “probably” financed and hired by Russian operatives.

A repository of Kremlin paperwork Purchased through the EU’s knowledge carrier and reviewed through the Washington Post, it shows the breadth of Russia’s efforts to find potential recruits.

The documents show that during July 2023, Kremlin political strategists studied the Facebook profiles of more than 1,200 people they believed were employees at two major German plants in Ludwigshafen – Auribis and BASF – To detect such employees who can be manipulated to create unrest.

The strategists prepared Excel spreadsheets examining each worker’s profile, highlighting posts that reflected the workers’ anti-government, anti-immigration, or anti-Ukrainian viewpoints.

At the BASF chemical plant, particular attention was paid to the attitude of employees towards the closure of several facilities at the plant in spring 2023 due to rising manufacturing costs, including rising herbal fuel prices, which resulted in losses. 2,600 jobs. At the Auribis Metals plant, strategists noted anti-immigrant views within the ranks of one of the employees, in key document presentations.

One leading strategist wrote, “We can concentrate on inciting ethnic hatred.” “Or on organizing a strike for social benefit.”

German officials said they were unaware of any incidents at BASF or Aurubis that might be related to Russia, but said they took the Kremlin’s activities very seriously and believed they explained How Moscow is using social media to retain its activists.

BASF spokeswoman Daniela Rechtenberger declined to talk about any employees, but said the company is “continuously strengthening its capabilities to prevent, detect and respond to safety risks.”

Aurubis spokesman Christoph Tesch said, “We have no evidence of this – nor are we aware of any social unrest at the company.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told The Post that allegations of a Russian subversion process are “nothing more than inciting Russophobic hysteria.”

“All these speculations and allegations are not based on anything,” he said, adding that the authenticity of what was claimed was “more than questionable”.

The expulsion of a large number of suspected Russian information officers serving under professional shield as diplomats shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was intended to reduce Moscow’s ability to conduct covert operations. However, a growing number, officials said, are working through Moscow proxies, including recruiting online.

“The way we tried to react was similar to what we would have done during the Cold War. But this is not how Russia operates now,” said Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s international minister, in an interview. “Social media alone provides a lot of opportunities for singles to find people who will assist them in their activities. So if you can do it online you won’t even need to have handlers in NATO countries.

While sifting through social media offers a better chance of detection, Moscow is eager to set out an indiscriminate internet search for allies. Officials said the uploads prepared a reputed random target for challenging situations in communicating through encrypted apps and uncovering Russian operations.

“It’s extremely decentralized,” Landsbergis said. “It could be refugees, people who are not down to their fate. These criminals could be, basically, anyone who thinks earning a few thousand euros (by doing sabotage for Russia) is a good idea and probably the risk isn’t too high.

Officials said Russia may also consider outsourcing such operations, which maintains some degree of denial, yet maximizes the potential for increased chaos. “They do what is possible,” said a senior EU security professional.

A Russian teacher with similar ties to senior Russian diplomats insisted that it was impossible to implicate Moscow in all the incidents cited by Western security officials. “But if this conflict continues, each side will turn more and more toward such distorted methods of warfare,” he said.

Schmidt, the man arrested for taking over a US military facility in Germany, had posted on Facebook about his exploits fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine between 2014 and 2016. His deployment appears to be a successful case of identifying potential ideological allies. German security officials said. Police officials said they were still investigating whether Schmidt received any financial payment for his efforts.

Investigators said Schmidt, who has both German and Russian citizenship and moved to Germany as a teenager, was also tasked with finding other people in the German-Russian population of Bayreuth, his birthplace in Bavaria, who Could have helped in the demolition work. ,

One such detainee was Alexander Jungblut, another Russian-born German, who was arrested with Schmidt in April and also charged with espionage.

As well as collecting data on an American company with branches in Bavaria, a German security expert said, “Jungblut mainly conducted Internet research and supported Schmidt.”

Legal professionals at Schmidt & Jungblut did not return calls for comment.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in June that the alliance’s defense ministers wanted better data exchange, increased coverage of critical infrastructure and additional restrictions on Russian data operators to curb Moscow’s operations.

However Lithuania’s Landsbergis said a larger conflict was needed. “From our perspective it doesn’t look like Russia is particularly avoiding casualties,” Landsbergis said. “It’s just a coincidence that there hasn’t been one yet. We will need to respond… When Russia is moving into our region, the best way to respond is to allow Ukraine to move back.

Belton reported from London and Rauhala from Brussels. Kate Brown in Washington and Ellen Francis in Brussels contributed to this file.