Former Wagner Recruiters Now Target Europeans For Sabotage, Financial Times Reports

Russian intelligence services are using former recruiters from the Wagner private military company to organize sabotage operations across Europe, according to Financial Times on February 16, citing Western intelligence officials.

The newspaper reports that after the death of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in 2023, Wagner structures were integrated into operations run by Russia’s military intelligence service, the Main Directorate of the General Staff (GRU).

Instead of recruiting fighters for the battlefield, these networks are now focused on enlisting economically vulnerable Europeans to carry out arson, vandalism, and disinformation inside NATO member states.

According to Financial Times, Russian services attempt to insert at least two intermediaries between handlers and recruits to preserve deniability. One official told the outlet that “they always want to have the possibility to deny involvement.”

Western officials described the recruits as follows: “Agents used by Russia are usually young people who are often recruited online. They are not spies. They also usually had no previous links to Russia. They are mobile, often motivated exclusively by money and entirely disposable.”

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The report links the effort to Wagner’s previous experience running online influence campaigns through structures such as the Internet Research Agency. Encrypted messaging platforms and Telegram channels are reportedly used to identify and recruit individuals willing to act for payment.

Financial Times cites the March 2024 arson attack on a warehouse in East London as one example. A 21-year-old British citizen, Dylan Earl, was recruited online and later involved four others in setting fire to the facility.

Earlier on February 9, Bulgarian civil group BOEC said it had discovered a guarded site near Kladnitsa allegedly linked to Russia’s Wagner Group, according to Novinite, and reported it to the Interior Ministry, citing concerns over possible terrorist activity.

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