Czech intelligence: Russia recruits migrants for sabotage via Telegram

Russian intelligence services use migrants from outside the EU to carry out sabotage, destabilise society and reduce support for Ukraine, the Czech Counterintelligence Agency (BIS) has concluded in its annual report for 2024, Politico reports.

According to BIS, the main recruitment tool is the messenger Telegram. Through it, potential performers are offered tasks ranging from filming military facilities and logistics hubs to arson. Particular attention is paid to infrastructure related to the delivery of aid to Ukraine.

As the authors of the report emphasise, these actions are not only tactical in nature, but also aimed at psychological impact.

"We are talking about undermining the cohesion of Western societies, instilling fear and uncertainty, reducing confidence in the state's ability to provide security, as well as increasing pressure to reduce support for Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression," the document says.

The Czech intelligence agency also notes that in many cases the recruited individuals do not even suspect that they are acting in Russia's interests. Recruitment is carried out through intermediaries, which makes it difficult to directly identify the customer.

The BIS report emphasises that the Czech Republic has been the target of attacks by Russian agents more than once in recent years. In 2021, the country expelled 18 Russian diplomats after evidence was presented that Russian intelligence services were involved in an explosion at an ammunition depot in 2014 that killed two people.

A recent example was an attempted arson attack on a bus depot organised by a Colombian national. A court sentenced him to eight years in prison. As Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala has previously stated, Russian entities were probably behind the attack. According to BIS, several similar attacks have been successfully thwarted.

The BIS also draws attention to the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Czech Republic. The agency claims that this structure is "fully loyal to the Kremlin" and is used as a channel of influence in Moscow's interests.

After the publication of this material, the SocPortal editorial office was contacted by a representative of the Telegram messenger. In his comment he noted:

"Calls for violence or destruction of property are explicitly prohibited by Telegram's terms of use and are deleted whenever they are detected. Moderators, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning-based tools, proactively monitor public parts of the platform and process complaints to remove millions of pieces of malicious content, including calls to violence, every day," said Remi Vaughn, a Telegram spokesperson.

Learn more about moderation on Telegram at Telegram.org/moderation.