How racists recruit Europeans via Telegram for sabotage, arson and murder

Residents of European countries are being recruited for espionage, arson, sabotage and even murder in their countries through the privet bot Telegram account, according to a joint investigation by the international consortium of journalists OCCRP and European publications, UNN reports.

Details

Representatives of European security services believe that such recruitment may be carried out by Russian special services.

Journalists drew attention to the privet bot when, in July 2024, it spread reports of sabotage in Romania, among other things.

Over the past year, the privet bot account has been advertised at least eight times on the Grey Zone telegram channel, which is affiliated with the Wagner PMC and has more than half a million subscribers. Privet bot ads also appeared on other, not so large telegram channels, Facebook, Vkontakte, and the Steam gaming platform. All messages urged European citizens to join the fight against Ukraine's Western allies.

In an effort to learn more about how Europeans are recruited on social media for pro-Russian sabotage, the authors of the investigation responded to one of the privet bot ads under the guise of 26-year-old Estonian Valeri Ivanov, who was looking for a part-time job. The journalists made up a biography for him, including details about his family, work, and hobbies, and created a Vkontakte page and a fake scan of his ID.

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During the brief dialog, Ivanov's interlocutor asked him to confirm his identity, asked questions about his military experience and criminal past, and whether he knew how to use a weapon. The privet bot asked Ivanov to confirm that he was aware of the "seriousness of the case" and was ready for "dangerous topics," and promised him ten thousand dollars "per mission" - for spying on military bases, setting fire to NATO equipment or a civilian oil depot, and even for murder. He promised to transfer the reward in cryptocurrency "upon completion of the mission.

At the same time, Ivanov's interlocutor demanded that he find "targets" on his own, and first asked him to practice with a Molotov cocktail. The journalists soon stopped talking.

When the journalists showed Ivanov's correspondence to representatives of the security services of Germany, Estonia, Austria, and Latvia, some of them confirmed that the journalists' dialog with the privet bot resembled cases of Russian recruitment of saboteurs they had encountered. The Latvian State Security Service did not comment on the correspondence with the privet bot, but said that Telegram was used by Russian intelligence services in some cases it was investigating.

Recall

Pavel Durov saidthat Telegram will provide IP addresses and phone numbers of rule violators in response to law enforcement requests. This is done to enhance user security and deter criminals.