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Oct 7, 2024 8 tweets 3 min read Read on X
🧵 Sleeper Agents, FSB Assassinations, & GRU Black Ops Unit 29155

Russian espionage expert @michaeldweiss testified before the U.S. Helsinki Commission on Russia's Shadow War on NATO. Key points from his testimony:
2/8 Russia is waging a covert war on NATO territory.
3/8 In the last decade, no other team of Russian intelligence has been more active in unleashing waves of violence across Europe than GRU Black Ops Unit 29155. Their crimes have included scores of sabotage bombings in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
4/8 In 2015, Unit 29155 also perpetrated the poisoning of Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev, who was supplying arms to Ukraine and Georgia. Three years later, they would poison Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the English town of Salisbury.
5/8 In 2019, Putin's Personal Hitman, FSB Agent Vladim Krasikov, gunned down Chechen dissident and former military commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, in Berlin's Tiergarten Park. Krasikov was recently traded back to Russia, with Putin willing to give up Alexei Navalny in exchange.
6/8 GRU is now on the radar of every major intelligence organization, and having trouble traveling to Europe. They're now emulating non-state actors like ISIS, recruiting native citizens remotely via social media platforms like Telegram, paying them in cryptocurrency.
7/8 Russian operatives & sleeper agents remain in Europe, planning attacks on the Paris Summer Olympics & other targets. In closing, Weiss suggests that Russia has long been attacking the West, and that the West must be vigilant to future assassinations, firebombings, & sabotage.
8/8 Watch the rest of the hearing, Russia's Shadow War on NATO, on the Helsinki Commission YouTube:

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More from @HelsinkiComm

Apr 4
Myths & facts about Russia's war on Ukraine: 🧵 Image
MYTH: NATO expansion provoked Russia's war against Ukraine.

FACT: Russia’s war on Ukraine is a continuation of Russia’s centuries-long policy of treating Ukraine as a vassal state to be subjugated. Image
MYTH: Eastern Ukrainians speak Russian & voted to become part of 🇷🇺, so the war is an issue of self-determination.

FACT: Many Ukrainians speak Russian b/c, during the Russian Empire & Soviet Union, elites promoted 🇷🇺 language & culture & repressed 🇺🇦 & other national identities. Image
Read 4 tweets
Jan 21
Russia is waging a shadow war on NATO, aiming to destabilize it & deter it from supporting Ukraine's existential fight for freedom.

In her recent piece in @MoscowTimes, @jvcwarlick laid out a blueprint for NATO to approach Russian provocations from a position of strength: 🧵1/5
First, NATO must improve its ability to out-innovate adversaries, ensuring it can prevail in the conflicts of today by countering active measures with enhanced attribution capabilities and strategic investments in its own arsenal of tools and capabilities. 2/5
Second, NATO must adopt a clear doctrine to respond to 🇷🇺 active measures. Finland & Estonia's decisive response to recent suspected attempts by Russia to damage undersea cables sets an example for how NATO should approach such attacks—with decisiveness & coordination. 3/5
Read 5 tweets
Jan 10
In the month since we published this report, Russia has continued to escalate its shadow war on NATO while new evidence has come to light about previous attacks and destabilization efforts. 1/6 🧵
In December, Finland seized a ship that is part of Russia’s shadow fleet as part of an investigation into Russian attempts to damage undersea cables in the Baltic Sea. Attacks on undersea power cables threaten the civilian energy infrastructure across the Baltics. 2/6
Last week, a member of the Duma openly discussed Russia’s efforts to cut undersea cables serving NATO countries on Russian state television as a means to inflict suffering upon Europeans. 3/6
Read 6 tweets
Dec 16, 2024
Our recent staff report mapped ~150 examples of Russian active measures on NATO soil since 🇷🇺 launched its full-scale invasion of 🇺🇦 in 4 categories: attacks on critical infrastructure, violence campaigns, weaponized migration, and election interference & disinformation.🧵 1/7 Image
Attacks on critical infrastructure are a means to threaten public safety and undermine trust in essential resources. One fifth of the attacks mapped below are cyber campaigns against hospitals in which hackers hold patient data ransom or disrupt critical hospital services. 2/7 Image
Violence campaigns range from petty vandalism to attempted acts of terrorism. Russia has been accused of recruiting and paying sympathizers from a variety of backgrounds to outsource their destabilization schemes. 3/7
Read 7 tweets
Dec 13, 2024
Russia’s active measures against NATO countries are calculated efforts to undermine democratic values, sow distrust within free societies, and destabilize the Alliance’s resolved unity.🧵1/6
Russia has executed hybrid campaigns ranging from cyberattacks to attempted assassination and terrorism plots. One-off incidents do not make wars in and of themselves, but the scale and calculated nature of Russian hybrid threats within NATO borders amount to a shadow war. 2/6
To visualize the breadth of the Kremlin’s efforts, Commission staff have mapped nearly 150 hybrid operations executed in NATO territory occurring since the outset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that have been attributed to or suspected of Russia. 3/6
Read 6 tweets
Nov 21, 2024
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Sybiha: There can be no alternative to justice. Russia must be held accountable for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, and all atrocities that follow, including the crime of genocide. 🧵1/4
This year, RM @RepCohen introduced a resolution recognizing Russia's actions in Ukraine as genocide, calling on the US & partners to support 🇺🇦 in preventing further acts of genocide, and supporting efforts to hold 🇷🇺 political leaders & military personnel accountable. 2/4 Image
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As and @RepJoeWilson & @RepCohen wrote, recognizing 🇷🇺 actions as genocide is more than a symbolic gesture. It underscores our nation’s dedication to preventing atrocities and ensuring that those who commit such crimes are held accountable. 3/4
Read 4 tweets

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