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Russia's secret network of 'disposable agents' in Europe · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: European countries have been on alert following a wave of
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: sabotage attacks, including an explosive drone targeting a German airport
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: last month. Authorities suspect Russian secret services are behind these attacks,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: but the people who are actually carrying them out might
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: not even know who they are working for. They're sometimes
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: referred to as disposable agents. An investigation by DW and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: three other European media partners followed their trail, and it
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  Speaker 1: led them via Latin America to a dance studio in Russia.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: In May 2024, a fire broke out at a construction
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: supply business in Warsaw.
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  Speaker 3: I was woken up by our security service. I came
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: here later between 2 and 3 a.m. The fire was
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: already very developed. The firefighters and police were on site.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: A week later, another fire broke out at a different
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: construction supply business located around 100 kilometers from Warsaw. A
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Russian pro-war telegram channel posted the attack online, claiming that
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: military goods destined for Ukraine were burned. and that Ukrainian
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: nationalists were behind it. But Polish authorities suspect this Colombian
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: man was responsible for the attacks, and he was acting
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: on Russia's behalf.
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  Speaker 3: The Russians selected these locations. They wanted to film the
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  Speaker 3: flames at night because then it is difficult to see
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  Speaker 3: what exactly is burning, so they can use the footage
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: in their propaganda.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Andres Delos was later caught in Prague after starting another fire.
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  Speaker 2: He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
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  Speaker 3: Guilt burns inside me for tarnishing the good name my
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: family gave me. For being taken in by something my
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: family always warned me about.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: For years, Russian intelligence has recruited people online for sabotage
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: in the EU. Often they are Ukrainian migrants, drug dealers
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: or youth looking for quick money. Delors was the first
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: known Latin American hired by Russia for sabotage.
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  Speaker 3: He was actively seeking job opportunities using social media. While
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: searching for this job, he suddenly met contact with a
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: person who began recruiting him to work for Russian intelligence.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: That person likely did not tell him who he was
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: really working for. At least a dozen people were hired
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  Speaker 2: by the same recruiter to commit sabotage in Europe, and
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: most came from Spanish-speaking countries. They targeted a recycling facility
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: in Romania and military equipment for Ukraine in Lithuania. After
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: obtaining classified court documents and reviewing leaked data, DW identified
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: the recruiter. Oemis Romagozaduruti is a Cuban-born dancer and teaches
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: salsa and bachata in the city of Petrozavodsk, Russia. He
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  Speaker 2: is married to a Russian woman and has obtained Russian citizenship.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: DW found that around the time the attacks happened, Romagoza
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  Speaker 2: had joined several Facebook groups for Latin Americans looking for
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  Speaker 2: jobs in Europe and posted job offers on Telegram. One
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: offered job opportunities for personnel with military experiences and promised $ 1, 500
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: plus bonuses for each completed operation. DW confronted Romagoza Duruti
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: with these findings. He did not reply. Authorities are still
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: looking for him.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: And joining me in the studio now is my colleague
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Matthias Böllinger, who filed this report. Matthias, tell us more
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: about this series of attacks. What else was this dance
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: teacher up to?
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: So he recruited a dozen people, roughly, to commit several
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: arson attacks in Europe. These arson attacks, they were directed
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: at businesses, construction supply businesses, recycling businesses, and also one
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: business that was preparing military equipment that was manufacturing military
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: equipment for Ukraine. And for that, he recruited people online,
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  Speaker 2: so-called disposable agents, people with no prior connection to the
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: services who were hired, like you would hire people for
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  Speaker 2: a gig somewhere to transport something or help you move things.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: And then these people, he sent them to four different
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  Speaker 2: European countries to commit these attacks. We've seen these attacks
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: for quite some time, these disposable agents as well. But
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: what's special about his story is that he was originally
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: from Cuba and so he spoke Spanish and he could
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: tap into a new language. basically demographic for these attacks,
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: and he recruited people as far as Colombia.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Where did he find them? I mean, you've hinted upon this,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: but how did he convince them?
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  Speaker 2: So we know that he was in several forums where
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: people were looking for jobs. There are people looking, Colombians
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: looking for jobs in Poland, for example. That's often manual labor,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: chicken quarries or so, jobs that are advertised in these.
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  Speaker 2: So he's seems to have found people in these forums
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  Speaker 2: and he was also joining, that's a very interesting twist,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: he was joining forums for Colombians who want to join
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: the Ukrainian army. There are many Colombians, Colombia has a
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: large pool of ex-soldiers because it's had a long conflict
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  Speaker 2: and these soldiers are quite in demand in the Ukrainian
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  Speaker 2: army and there are forums for them and there he
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  Speaker 2: hit up people and he told them, look, I have
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  Speaker 2: a different job for you. I'm part of a special unit.
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  Speaker 2: And if you go and work with me, you'll earn
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  Speaker 2: more than in the army and on the battlefield. So
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: it was also about money. It was about money, yes.
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  Speaker 2: Many of them are going to Ukraine to fight because
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: the salaries are much higher than in Colombia. So he
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: offered them money and he did not probably disclose whom
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: he was really working for. So they might have thought
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: that they were working on behalf of maybe NATO or
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: other special units. And then he sent them to Europe
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  Speaker 2: to commit these arson attacks.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Now, what is Russia trying to achieve is using these agents?
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  Speaker 1: Is it just deniability?
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  Speaker 2: Well, using the agents, of course, deniability is a big thing.
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  Speaker 2: But Russia has lost a large part of their intelligence
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: infrastructure in Europe after 2022. because many European countries have
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: expelled the diplomats who were responsible for organizing this kind
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: of stuff. And after that, Russia has resorted to recruiting
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: people online. Of course, these people are not highly trained professionals.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: There are missions that you would not probably entrust them.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: But for a lot of the stuff that Russia is doing,
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  Speaker 2: and a lot of this stuff is just burning random stuff,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: there's no strategic value in burning a construction supply business.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, to just throw a mullet of cocktails onto something.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just a business. So what are they trying
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: to achieve? They think they have probably several goals. They
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: see how Western intelligence, how Western investigators, police respond to that.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: They also create some kind of... anxiety in society destabilize
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: society create some some kind of erode somehow the trust
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: in society so there are several effects that they achieve
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: with it and they can use it for their propaganda
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: show the film which they have done uh or the
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: video that's taken by the person who has committed the
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: arson and then say okay somebody has set fire to
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: military equipment.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Uh Last question. How did you get onto the dance
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: teacher's trail? Can you elaborate that? Or is it a
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: trade secret?
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Part of it is a trade secret, but I'll tell
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: you the parts that are not. We have been looking
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: into these disposable agents and this wave of sabotage. We've
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: really seen it in many European countries. A lot in Poland,
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: a lot in Lithuania, but also other countries. And we've
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: looked at several cases and then we somehow noticed that...
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: People had traveled from Colombia to do this, and that
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: raised our interest. And when we looked deeper into that
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: and acquired some materials, we got access to some classified files.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: We could trace this back to this dance teacher, and
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: then we also found a lot on him on social media.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: He's not particularly, let's say, meticulous about hiding his traces.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Very exciting stuff. Thank you very much, Matthias Böllinger, DW's
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: investigative unit. Thank you, Matthias.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Gerhard.