Re:Baltica and Delfi report on Latvian and Estonian court documents showing how the GRU is recruiting Baltic citizens to vandalize and set fire to targets in the West. In May 2022, a homeowner from the small village of Rembate, an hour’s drive from the Latvian capital Riga, was working in her garden when she saw a black car turn into her driveway. A young man got out. By the time the homeowner reached the gate, the car had driven off, leaving a folded piece of paper on the ground. She picked it up but quickly forgot about it, distracted by the newspapers the mailman had just delivered. The next day, upon reading the note, she immediately handed it over to her son-in-law, who works in the Latvian Armed Forces. He informed his superior, who then contacted the Military Intelligence and Security Service. The next day, an investigator turned up at the woman’s house. The swift response was due to the note’s heading: “Mission, Lielvārde Military Airfield.” Below were instructions on what to photograph at the airfield and how to respond if questioned about the reasons for taking pictures. The back of the note featured a childlike drawing of an airplane. The house where this document was found is located just a few kilometers from the Lielvārde base, which houses Latvian military aircraft — including U.S.-supplied Black Hawk helicopters — used for continuous surveillance of Baltic airspace. (…) Indeed, such acts have grown exponentially throughout NATO countries in the last two years, coinciding with Russia’s faltering campaign on the battlefield. The efforts are part of what Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has dubbed the Kremlin’s “shadow war” against the West, whose resolve and determination in arming and supporting Kyiv has further contributed to Russian military setbacks. The sabotage operations are so numerous and widespread that a new one is uncovered and reported on every week or two. Plots have included arson attacks on a large-scale shopping mall in Warsaw, an IKEA warehouse in Vilnius, a museum in Riga, a bus depot in Prague, an industrial estate in east London, and a metals factory in Berlin owned by a company that makes air defense systems. In the last two instances, the sites have been linked to military aid bound for Ukraine. In total, at least eight serious Russia-linked incidents have been reported in Poland and the Baltic states alone. According to Western intelligence services, this continent-wide campaign is being led by the GRU, Russia’s military spy agency.
via the insider: Exclusive: Inside Russia’s Latvian Sabotage Squad