Russia ‘recruiting far-Right extremists to hold out terror assaults’

Russia has been accused of recruiting far-Right extremists plotting terror attacks in NATO nations including the UK – after the British government last week expelled spies including Moscow‘s defence attaché in London.

Experts say Vladimir Putin and his GRU military intelligence office are behind terrorists who have carried out a series of attacks in the West in recent months and are planning more ahead.

Undercover GRU officers and the mercenary group Wagner are believed to be cultivating militants described as ‘pro-Russia, pro-Putin and very violent’.

The warnings come days after Home Secretary James Cleverly told MPs an ‘undeclared’ Russian military intelligence officer Colonel Maxim Elovik had been posing as Moscow’s defence attaché and had been told to leave the country.

Mr Cleverly also closed several buildings used by the Putin regime and promised a cap on the amount of time Russian diplomats can spend in the UK.

Britain has expelled almost a dozen Russian spies since the Salisbury Novichok poisonings in 2018, a botched attempted assassination of ex-Russian military officer and British double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

And there have recently been allegations Moscow was involved in a suspected arson attack on a Ukrainian aid centre in London.

British suspect Dylan Earl, 20, was last month charged with working for a Russian intelligence service after being accused of torching the aid centre.

He became the first person to be charged under the new National Security Act brought in last year to target those working secretly for hostile states within the UK, while also being charged with aggravated arson and putting others in danger.

Earl is accused of recruiting others to carry out an arson attack on an aid collection centre in East London to send a ‘message’ on behalf of Russia that assistance to Ukraine will be met with ‘punishment’.

It is said to be the first attack orchestrated by the Wagner Group on British soil.

The latest measures announced by Mr Cleverly were in response to a ‘pattern of alleged Russian malign activity across the UK and Europe’ in a bid to ‘target and dismantle Russian intelligence-gathering operations’, the Home Office said.

Five people have been charged over conspiring to commit espionage activities in the UK on behalf of Russia under the National Security Act, the first prosecutions of this kind under the new laws.

The latest developments emerged against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine following Mr Putin’s invasion in February 2002 and amid mounting fears of Russian espionage and sabotage across Europe.

Now intelligence officials say the UK is ‘definitely on the target list’ for far-Right terrorists taken under Russia’s wing, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

Organised crime gangs are increasingly being used by Russia to carry out terror attacks by proxy, it was suggested.

Speaking about Russia, Germany’s head of domestic intelligence Thomas Haldenwang last month told a security conference about the risk of attacks with ‘a high potential for damage’.

He said: ‘We assess the risk of state-controlled acts of sabotage to be significantly increased.’

And an intelligence source has told National Security News: ‘The GRU are cultivating a network of Right-wing terrorists to deploy against Nato targets.

‘These attacks are already happening and have been going on for a while in various Nato countries and the UK is definitely on the target list.

‘Intelligence agencies are now actively warning their governments that the threat is very real.

‘Right-wing extremists are being targeted because they are the group in the political spectrum who are pro-Russia, pro-Putin and very violent.

‘There is also a lot of covert contact between Right-wing groups in different countries.’

At least three European governments have received intelligence that suggests Russia is ramping up its sabotage efforts in a more aggressive and concerted manner, the FT reported last week.

Preparations for covert bombings and arson attacks against European infrastructure are suspected – with Germany among the countries targeted.

Two German-Russian men were arrested last month in Bavaria for allegedly plotting to blow up and set fire to military and logistics sites across Germany.

One man, Dieter S., allegedly maintained contact with Russian intelligence, while the other, Alexander J., is said to have helped identify potential targets.

Germany temporarily recalled its Russian ambassador Alexander Graf Lambsdorff last Monday after members of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party were targeted in what Berlin said was a state-sponsored Russian cyber attack.

A newly concluded government investigation found the cyber attack targeting members of Mr Scholz’s Social Democratic Party had been carried out by a group known as APT28, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.

The group was controlled by Russia’s military intelligence, meaning it was ‘a state-sponsored Russian cyber attack on Germany’, she Baerbock added.

Russia rejected the allegations as ‘unsubstantiated and groundless’.

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, has been accused of dozens of cyber attacks in countries around the world.

The Czech Republic revealed earlier this month that some of its state institutions had been the target of cyberattacks blamed on APT28, again by exploiting a weakness in Microsoft Outlook in 2023.

In February, Sweden’s security service, Säpo, which is in charge of counter-espionage and counter-terrorism in the country, joined an investigation into a series of train derailments in Vassijaure and Malmbanan that were suspected to have been caused by sabotage.

The Czech Republic’s transport minister warned that Russia had already made ‘thousands’ of attempts at interfering with train networks and signals in an effort to destabilise the continent.

Hackers reported attacked signalling and ticketing systems on the country’s national railway České dráhy.

The new UK measures towards Russia announced last week by Mr Cleverly include removing diplomatic status from buildings such as Seacox Heath.

The Grade II listed mansion in Hawkhurst, East Sussex, was built in 1871 for statesman George Goschen but has been in Russian hands since 1946.

When it emerged the property was an extension of Russia’s London embassy, outraged locals sprayed pro-Ukrainian graffiti on the entrance.

Another key building to lose diplomatic status is the Russian Embassy’s trade and defence section in Highgate, north London, in a neighbourhood popular with Russian diplomats and oligarchs.

The measures are calculated to severely dent the Kremlin’s ability to carry out intelligence operations in the UK.

Mr Cleverly described how there had been an escalation in ‘reckless and dangerous activities’ including sabotage, espionage, cyber-attacks, disinformation attacks, air space incursions and GPS jamming.

He told MPs he wanted to send a ‘strong deterrent message’, adding: ‘We should expect accusations of Russophobia, conspiracy theories and hysteria from the Russian government.

‘The British people and the British Government will not fall for it and will not be taken for fools by Putin’s bots, trolls and lackeys.’

The Russian ambassador was summoned to relay the measures.

Meanwhile, NATO has staged a show of strength against Mr Putin with British Paras taking part in a huge military exercise in Estonia, which neighbours Russia.

The drill was the organisation’s biggest since the Cold War and saw 82 British soldiers and 60 American troops parachute from three US C-17 transporter planes.

Mr Putin was officially sworn in last Tuesday for a new six-year term as president, following an emphatic victory in March elections widely condemned as a ‘sham’. 

More than 450,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded since Mr Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, Britain’s armed forces minister Leo Docherty suggested this month in Parliament.

He also claimed ‘tens of thousand more have already deserted since the start of the conflict’ and ‘over 10,000 Russian armoured vehicles’ had been destroyed.