Russia is recruiting far-Right extremists to carry out attacks in the UK and Nato countries, The Telegraph understands.
Intelligence sources have said that terrorists recruited by Russian GRU agents have been responsible for a series of attacks in Western Europe and the US in the last six months.
The Telegraph understands that extremists are being recruited by undercover officers of the GRU – the Russian military intelligence service – and members of the mercenary group Wagner.
It comes after the expulsion of Col Elovik Maxim, the Russian defence attache to the UK, who is believed to be a GRU operative.
An intelligence source said: “The GRU are cultivating a network of Right-wing terrorists to deploy against Nato targets.
“These attacks are already happening and have been going on for a while in various Nato countries and the UK is definitely on the target list.
“Attacks may have taken place in the US and have occurred in Germany.
“Intelligence agencies are now actively warning their governments that the threat is very real.
“Right-wing extremists are being targeted because they are the group in the political spectrum who are pro-Russia, pro-Putin and very violent.
“There is also a lot of covert contact between Right-wing groups in different countries.”
The disclosures follow comments last month by Thomas Haldenwang, the head of German domestic intelligence, who told a security conference: “We assess the risk of [Russian] state-controlled acts of sabotage to be significantly increased.”
He added that the attacks would come with “a high potential for damage”.
After the Salisbury poisonings in 2018, dozens of Russian spies were expelled by the UK Government.
It is now believed that the Kremlin has been forced to follow a tactic similar to that used by Iran in which organised crime gangs are used to carry out proxy terrorist attacks.
Mark Galeotti, director of the London-based think tank Mayak Intelligence and author of Putin’s Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine, said that as the West continues to pile pressure on Russia, “we should not be surprised by a pushback.”
Mr Galeotti added that the increase in sabotage operations also comes as Ukraine has intensified its attacks on Russian soil and that they can be viewed as a sort of payback.
“As far as Putin is concerned, Ukraine does what it is told.
“When he sees Russian factories being attacked, he sees the hands of the CIA, of Nato.
“Not killing people and going after infrastructure facilities show they still have political limits, for the moment.
“Even if Putin speaks of a war against the West, in reality he doesn’t want an open conflict.
“So Russia is using operations that remain just below the threshold.”
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