Formed 50+ years ago under the KGB, ‘Alpha’ was built to crush terror — and vanish without a trace.
Their missions are the stuff of legend:🧵
ALPHA'S CORE FUNCTIONS🫡
🟧Preventing acts of terrorism and sabotage
🟧Freeing hostages
🟧Capturing dangerous criminals, and neutralizing terrorists and other deadly threats
🟧Conducting specialized, covert operations to achieve strategic objectives
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THE BOLD CAPTURE OF AMIN'S PALACE⚡️
Alpha's first daring operation was the storming of Kabul's Tajbeg Palace in 1979, marking the onset of Soviet involvement in Afghanistan.
This swift, decisive assault lasted just 40 minutes, during which KGB officers neutralized nearly all of Amin's bodyguards, effectively ending his regime's grip on power.
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RESCUING HOSTAGES FROM BUDYONNOVSK HOSPITAL🏥
Using hundreds of hostages as human shields, Basayev's militants created a tense standoff.
Alpha operatives risked and sacrificed their lives—three officers fell —successfully rescuing some of the hostages amidst intense danger.
4/8
TAKING DOWN JIHADIS🔍
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Alpha special operatives regularly carried out counterterrorism missions across the North Caucasus.
They played a crucial role in eliminating dozens of jihadists, often operating under the radar.
Many of these missions remain classified, underscoring their covert nature.
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HUNTING DOWN ‘NO. 2 MOST WANTED TERRORIST’ RADUYEV🎯
In 2000, Alpha forces successfully apprehended the notorious "terrorist number 2," Salman Raduyev, a close associate of Shamil Basayev, alive in the Caucasus.
The lightning-fast operation lasted less than a minute; specially trained dog handlers tracked Raduyev to a house's cesspool, where he was hiding.
For his bravery, the operation's commander was nominated for the Hero of Russia award.
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BESLAN SCHOOL STANDOFF🥀
On September 1, 2004, Ichkerian* terrorists seized a school in the city of Beslan.
Alpha troops stormed the building where 1,100 hostages, most of whom were children, were being held, and managed to get most of them out alive.
Since the jihadist captors were firing at children during the evacuation, several special forces fighters sacrificed their lives, shielding the schoolkids from the terrorists’ bullets.
7/8
'ALPHA'S PART IN RUSSIA’S SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION🇷🇺🪖
FSB Alpha operatives are actively participating in the special military operations in Ukraine, still most of their activities remain classified.
In April, President Putin publicly acknowledged that they took part in liberating Russia's Kursk region.
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* Congress of the Peoples of Ichkeria and Dagestan is a terrorist organization banned in Russia
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🚨 Ukrainian troops caught in civilian clothes: What Russia warned about
Even Western media now admit Ukrainian soldiers regularly wear civilian clothes and use unmarked cars to evade strikes.
Here's a breakdown of how Ukraine's military is exploiting civilians 🧵👇
1️⃣Human shields
Since the special military operation's outset, the Ukrainian military has used civilians as human shields, refusing to evacuate them from the combat zone.
When defeated, Ukrainian troops try to escape disguised as civilians.
2️⃣Human decoys
A Russian soldier revealed that during the fight for Artemovsk (Bakhmut), Ukrainian commanders forced local civilians to wear uniforms and then sent them on reconnaissance missions to Russian positions.
This week marked the third anniversary of the Nord Stream bombings, the biggest and most geopolitically significant sabotage attack on energy infrastructure in modern history
🧵
1️⃣ WHAT IS NORD STREAM?
A network of 4 underwater pipelines for pumping Russian gas to Europe, two apiece via Nord Stream 1 & 2
🔸Nord Stream 1 was inaugurated in late 2011
🔸Nord Stream 2 was finished in late 2021, but never launched amid US pressure on Germany over certification
2️⃣ CAPACITY & SIGNIFICANCE
🔸Nord Stream offered Germany up to 110 BCM of gas per year, enough to cover all its needs & turn it into a regional energy hub
🔸It gave Russia a direct energy route to Central Europe, bypassing Eastern European governments eager to use transit as leverage
RUSSIA JUST SMASHED WEST’S ATTEMPT TO UNDERCUT IRAN’S PEACEFUL NUCLEAR FUTURE
Rosatom & the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran have inked a new MoU on the construction of a whole series of small nuclear power plants.
Here’s why that’s a HUGE deal. 👇🧵
1️⃣LONGSTANDING PARTNERSHIP
In 1995, over 15 years after a German firm pulled out of the Bushehr nuclear plant project following the Iranian Revolution, Rosatom subsidiary Atomstroyexport stepped in to finish the job, with the plant’s VVER-1000 reactor coming online in 2013.
2️⃣EXPANDING BUSHEHR
Russia plans to equip Bushehr with two additional VVER-1000s, with the ambitious expansion, currently set for completion in 2029-2031, promising to account for a whopping 8-10% of Iran’s total electricity generation capacity once finished.
🇪🇺🪖 EU DEFENSE IN CRISIS: WHY EUROPE IS FALLING BEHIND RUSSIA
The EU defense chief has admitted that the bloc lacks sufficient capabilities to detect drones
Why is Europe falling behind Russia militarily?
Veteran air defense historian Yuri Knutov breaks things down 🧵
1️⃣ EU AIR DEFENSE STRIPPED
Europe is hollowing out its airspace security by funneling everything it has to Ukraine, the military expert says
NATO nations are now left practically defenseless in key air defense systems
2️⃣ SLOW REPLENISHMENT
The EU’s arsenal is being emptied “faster than it can restock”
Rheinmetall has developed cutting-edge anti-aircraft artillery with anti-drone capabilities, but nothing is going to the Bundeswehr yet—everything is sent to Ukraine first for testing