During the war with Ukraine, Moscow created a network of agents associated with the criminal underground to carry out acts of sabotage in the European Union countries. What can be done?
Photo. Screenshot from GLOBSEC website: study on Crime as a tool for hybrid war in Europe
For the purposes of the hybrid war against Europe, Russia created a peculiar network of agents, based on close ties between state facilities and the criminal underground. It besides recruits previously punished Russian-speaking men to carry out acts of sabotage in Europe.
Experts from GLOBSEC and the global Centre for Combating Terrorism (ICCT) based in The Hague in a joint survey on "Russia's Crime-Terror Nexus: Crimeality as a Tool of Hybrid Warfare in Europe" came to this conclusion. Its results were presented in Brussels at the gathering of the European Parliament's peculiar Committee on the European Democratic Shield (EUDS).
This survey presents Moscow's tactics in relation to its war against Ukraine and shows that "hybrid operations are not a secondary matter, but they play a central function in Russian strategy". Scientists compare it with the activities of the alleged muslim State (ISIS), a terrorist organization that besides recruited criminals in Europe. "This time, however, it is not a terrorist organization, it is the actions of the state that besides conduct verbundling and various operations", the authors of the survey emphasize.
Men with a criminal record
They point out that between January 2022 and July 2025 in Europe, mainly in Poland and France, 110 acts of sabotage and assassination attempts were carried out with any ties to Russia. 89 of them were successful and 21 were thwarted. The authors further stress that the number of specified thwarted attacks and assassinations may actually be much higher, as secret services combating them reluctantly give details of their actions.
GLOBSEC and ICCT experts have managed to identify 131 individuals who participated in these acts of sabotage and assassination attempts. At least 31 of them were previously punished and recruited in prisons or through criminal organizations.
According to the authors of the survey for acts of sabotage in Europe, the Kremlin recruits mainly men about 30 speaking Russian, mostly from countries that emerged from the erstwhile russian republics and are in a hard situation of life. Their acquisition frequently takes place online, mostly through the Telegram app as well as through relatives and friends.
The most crucial incentive to recruit saboteurs is money. This is simply a comparatively tiny sum for giving out pro-Russian flyers, from comparatively tiny sums to crucial amounts for trying to carry out attacks on critical infrastructure facilities.
Revenge on Europe for helping Ukraine
In order to finance specified activities, Moscow besides places illegal measures to circumvent Western economical sanctions. "These channels let the Kremlin to circumvent restrictions on the 1 hand and at the same time, on the another hand, deeper integration of criminal networks in the conduct of the hybrid war", the authors of the survey write.
"Illegal money flows, crime and hybrid operations are not separate challenges but are elements of the same action plan", they add. "Military campaigns and actions of Russia, specified as bombings, arsons and assassination attempts, are to be treated both as punishment for Europe's aid to Ukraine and Russia's preparation for a possible larger-scale conflict".
Close ties to the criminal underground
– The Russian government's usage of criminals is nothing new," explains Dominic Hajdu of the Think Tank GLOBSEC. People who lived to the east of the Iron Curtain remember well how permanent shortages in the USSR supply increased the dependence of russian society on the grey region in the economy.
After the dissolution of the russian Union in Russia, unlike another post-communist states, the fight against corruption was no precedence for the authorities. On the contrary, corruption has become the norm and method of action of various institutions and offices. According to Dominika Hajdu, more than 500 criminal organizations operated in Russia in 1994, which controlled about 40,000 businesses.
– In the early 2000s, representatives of safety authorities, including KGB officers, increased their influence in controlling the activities of the Russian Federation, and their ties to the criminal underground became part of the fresh state system," he explains.
“We want to act against the recruited”
Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz besides considers utilizing the methods utilized by criminals and maintaining close ties by the Russian government with the criminal underground as a long-standing practice. Sienkiewicz is simply a associate of the European Parliament and a associate of the faction of the European People's Party.
In his conversation with the DW, he had no uncertainty that the Kremlin maintained relations with the criminal underground to recruit agents in Europe. In his opinion, the main problem concerns the answer to the question: "How should we respond to this?". In this context, Sienkiewicz highlighted many incidents with drones over EU airports that paralyzed air traffic in Europe.
– Nobody shot them down. We want to act against the people recruited by Russia, but the activity on the Telegram app continues at its best, although the EU should in rule control them," Sienkiewicz emphasised.
What should the European Union do?
The authors of the survey effort to make a fistful of recommendations that could be the basis for possible EU action. 1 is better control of online platforms like Telegram.
The further step should be, in their view, to extend the definition of "hybrid threats", as the doctrines of many countries do not take due account of the actions of criminal groups, their ideologically motivated representatives and individuals acting alone. specified gaps in the law let Russia to effectively deny its function in sabotage operations and another attacks and to act as an unfairly accused victim of slander.
Dominica Hajdu considers close cooperation between public and private institutions in the fight against this threat to be very important. He says: “They must be partners due to the fact that private companies in Europe have tried and tested methods to detect Russian illegal activities. That is why we are in favour of establishing a platform to coordinate specified cooperation to prevent Russian hybrid attacks on European countries more effectively."
