Russia maintains an undeclared war with the European Union (EU), especially since the 27 sided with Ukraine after the invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin saw, after this decision, how European governments expelled from their countries … hundreds of his diplomats, many of whom devoted themselves to intelligence work, which left him “blind” to the Western world. He then reacted and, in addition to sending agents without cover – much less, given the risk of them being detected – he decided to implement a strategy to recruit cheaply agents that they would use in one go for small sabotages or minor missions. This is why they are known as “use and throw away” or “disposable”.
Various highly reliable state security sources consulted by ABC explain that to a certain extent “we can say that ‘disposable’ agents are a symptom that Putin he felt vulnerable and launched a plan that did not pose a big threat to EU countries as the stated targets were low level. ” However, the same sources specify that this is one more strategy among the many and more aggressive that the Kremlin has launched as part of this hybrid war that it maintains against Europe, which includes various types of sabotage, cyberattacks, arson and disinformation campaigns.
And there is another element, no less important: “The ‘amateurization of sabotage “could increase the likelihood of collateral victims, including their own perpetrators,” explains a document from Acled, the acronym for the organization Armed Conflict Location & Event Data which collects and maps detailed information on political violence and protests across the planet.
In Spain, according to the security sources consulted, there is no definitive evidence that implicates Russian intelligence in a dozen suspicious acts – from the burning of a company in Fuenlabrada (Madrid) to shipments of suspicious packages to the Ukrainian and US embassies in Madrid, or to a defense company that supplied weapons to the Zelensky regime, events for which a pensioner was convicted – but the truth is that some of these episodes They bear the GRU seal.
The same sources consulted warn that the very way of recruiting “disposable agents”, via Telegram or the “dark web”, makes it very difficult to find direct evidence of the existence of these agents. relationship between the material and intellectual authors of these attacksthat what they seek above all is to create a feeling of insecurity.
To capture these collaborators, Russian intelligence services monitor user behavior on public Internet channels where they are broadcast. pro-Russian content and conspiracy theories. Those who frequently like, comment or share posts can be identified as potential recruits through computer programs that analyze millions of profiles based on their loyalty and political orientation.
First contact
The first contact usually takes place through innocuous offers or requests, before communication passes through encrypted communication channels. Recruited people may receive orders such as photographing military installations, burning vehicles or graffiti with political slogans. The majority lack training or ideological motivation and are abandoned after completing a mission.
According to the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’, dozens of people have been arrested in Europe over the past two years on suspicion of having been captured by Russian secret services to commit these types of acts. For example, in Lithuania, an Ikea store was set on fire; In the UK, seven people have been charged over the fire at an industrial warehouse in a business linked to Ukraine; In Paris, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, they placed five coffins with the inscription “French soldiers in Ukraine”…
As for the authors, as has been pointed out, they are individuals recruited on the network and who often receive remuneration, never too high, in cryptocurrencies. Some know very well what they are doing, but others are unaware that they work for Moscow; In fact, the most common is that they are not motivated by any ideological component. They are an easy troop to manage and, in fact, Russian intelligence officers do not need to leave their country to direct operations. Furthermore, these are often people who They work in the underground economywho of course are paid under the table, and many of them have a criminal record.
“The strategic objective is to sow discord and insecurity. “They are not destroying important infrastructure, they are focusing on vulnerable targets that influence the general perception of insecurity in society.”
To give an idea of the threat, it is sufficient to point out that recently the Federal Office for the Protection of the German Constitution, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and Military Counter-Espionage Service (MAD) They warned citizens to be alert to the possibility of being recruited as “disposable agents” by hostile countries.
Last May, the German Federal Prosecutor General ordered the arrest of three suspects whom he accused of planning attacks with explosive packages on behalf of Russian state agencies. The detainees were three citizens of Ukrainian origin who accepted orders “to send packages from Germany to recipients in their country containing explosive splints that would catch fire during transport.” Prosecutors are working on the hypothesis that these were “disposable agents.”
“The strategic objective is to sow discord and insecurity. “They are not destroying important infrastructure, they are focusing on vulnerable targets that influence the general perception of insecurity in society,” said a former head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Poland, one of the most affected countries, as seen a few weeks ago in a railway incident in this country which is attributed to an action of one of these “single-use agents”.
Disposable goods
For Russia, the advantage of using these is that if something goes wrong and they are stopped they can be easily ignored and simply allow them to serve a sentence, which in any case will not be very heavy due to the type of attack carried out. “You imprison one and another seems to take his place. For Moscow, it is a disposable product, assured a European official.
Javier Jordán, professor of political science at the University of Granada and security expert, “sabotage actions are in synergy with other hybrid strategies used by Russia, such as cyberattacks and disinformation” and affirms that in Russia “two motivations converge. nature: she seeks weaken military and economic support in Ukraine, a fundamental condition for kyiv’s war effort.”
According to Acled data, half of suspicious incidents since February 2022 occurred last year, with sabotage and unauthorized drone overflights being the most frequent. Last March, they started to decrease, probably due to Donald Trump’s approach to Putin.
This organization adds that “even if some acts could be described as simple vandalism, their scale cannot be underestimated”. importance nor its destabilizing potential. Meanwhile, Russia could exploit the cover of the local insurgency to carry out attacks and sow chaos with plausible deniability, making investigations even more difficult and blurring the lines between reality and violence. »
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