European intelligence services and security experts are once again sounding the alarm. They warn that individuals linked to Moscow, as part of its “hybrid war” against the West, are acquiring country houses, summer residences, warehouses, abandoned schools, urban apartments, and even entire islands.
These are not just investments — the purchased properties are located near military and civilian infrastructure, including airbases, naval ports, undersea cable routes, and energy facilities in at least a dozen European countries. The goal of such acquisitions is to create footholds for surveillance, sabotage, and covert operations, according to The Telegraph, or rather its intelligence sources. Intelligence officials say that instead of launching a conventional military offensive, the Kremlin may try to test NATO’s resolve in the “grey zone” by organizing larger-scale attacks that can be plausibly denied, aiming to paralyze transport, communication, and energy networks while complicating any invocation of Article 5 collective defense.
In truth, Russians did not begin buying property in Europe yesterday or last week. At first, they were welcomed as “cash clients.” Prestigious real estate in London and the Spanish resort city of Marbella found Russian buyers. Later, however, it emerged that many of these “wealthy clients” were linked to the “Russian mafia.” Now, it seems Europe is entering a second phase of awakening. As it turns out, intelligence services stand behind many of these property acquisitions.
Europeans indeed have reason to be concerned, especially since they have already faced sabotage activity by “individuals connected to Moscow.” The Skripal case and the December 2014 explosions at two ammunition depots in the Czech Republic intended for Ukraine have already become classics of the genre. But last summer, Europe began speaking about Russia actively recruiting local young people to carry out arson attacks, kidnappings, and other acts of sabotage. In particular, in March 2024 a fire broke out at a warehouse in London storing Starlink satellite-internet equipment owned by a Ukrainian businessman. A year later, it became known that five young men had carried out the arson on orders from the well-known Wagner PMC.
They had also planned to set fire to a wine shop and restaurant belonging to Russian opposition entrepreneur Yevgeny Chichvarkin and to drug and kidnap him — a method practiced by Kremlin intelligence services since the abduction of General Kutepov. In July of the same year, two young men attempted to burn down an IKEA shopping center in Vilnius — also allegedly on Russia’s instructions. According to the Associated Press, since the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, at least 70 similar incidents linked to the Kremlin have been identified across Europe. Around the same time, roughly three dozen Russian agents were arrested in Poland — mostly young individuals ordered to “carry out acts of sabotage and attacks.” A “Russian trace” was also found in the arson of the Marywilska 44 shopping center in Warsaw on May 12, 2024. The list goes on.
Finally, the issue is not limited to arson and small-scale sabotage that amateurs can carry out. The Kremlin’s record includes an attempted terrorist uprising and coup d’état in Montenegro — a small, peaceful resort country that decided to join NATO. Moscow did not welcome this move, and a highly violent scenario was allegedly prepared there, involving street unrest, shooting at people from rooftops, and the assassination of local leader Milo Djukanovic. The main driving force behind the plot was supposed to be… Russian expatriates. Long before the war in Ukraine, many Russian expats had moved to Montenegro — Slavic, Orthodox, relaxed, and hospitable. At first, they lived peacefully. Then political activity began to follow Moscow’s script — “Immortal Regiment” marches, branches of the Night Wolves biker group, and so on. And in the end — an attempted coup.
Once again, this brings to mind the European complacency that followed the end of the Cold War. In Europe — especially Western Europe — Russia was viewed as a friend and partner, and above all many quickly and easily believed that the “Soviet threat” had disappeared along with the collapsed USSR, and that the new democratic Russia posed no danger. Now it turns out that while the monument to Dzerzhinsky was dismantled at Lubyanka, Lubyanka itself never went anywhere. And its methods remain the same.
Nurani
