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2mo ago

Ex-Wagner Network Recruits 'Disposable' Saboteurs Across Europe, Western Intel Says

Officials describe GRU use of intermediaries with Telegram outreach to target vulnerable Europeans.

The newly-inaugurated bronze statue in the likeness of the late Wagner private mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin (L), and his right-hand man Dmitru Utkin (R), erected in front of the "Maison Russe" (Russian House) in Bangui, photographed in December 2024. Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, died with nine other people aboard a plane flying from Moscow to Saint Petersburg on August 23, 2023. Unlike other African countries where the Wagner paramilitary has been reconstituted under the name "Africa Corps", it continues to operate under the Wagner name in the Central African Republic. It was invited into the country by President Faustin Archange Touadera in 2018, with its subsidiaries winning contracts to operate gold and diamond mines. (Photo by Annela NIAMOLO / AFP) (Photo by ANNELA NIAMOLO/AFP via Getty Images)
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Overview

  • Western intelligence assessed that former Wagner recruiters and propagandists now serve as a key channel for Kremlin-directed sabotage on NATO territory, the Financial Times reported.
  • The GRU is said to preserve deniability by inserting at least two cut-out layers between handlers and recruits, while the FSB leans on criminal networks and diaspora contacts that officials consider less scalable.
  • Recruitment targets include criminals, the unemployed and migrants who accept small payments for tasks such as arson, vandalism, assaults, surveillance or posing as extremist propagandists.
  • British authorities linked a 2023 London warehouse arson to Wagner-linked Telegram recruitment, citing 21-year-old Dylan Earl as an example of the model’s use of petty criminals.
  • European services have mapped a broader Wagner-linked network and say more plots have been foiled than succeeded, as outside reporting has cataloged roughly 145 disruption incidents blamed on Russia or proxies since 2022.