Journalists expose online terrorism efforts in Poland and Baltics

The full report can be found here, and outlines attempts to recruit people to commit various criminal acts in various countries across Europe. One prime example involed a journalist posing as a Ukrainian living in Lithuania near the Pabrades military training ground, which is also used by NATO allies. He was offered the task of filming the military equipment stationed there. Journalists have found that large sums of money are being offered for setting NATO military equipment on fire – 1,500 US dollars, or approximately 1,300 euros. In turn, a reward of 1,000 US dollars, or approximately 870 euros, is being offered for setting fire to a high-end car with Ukrainian license plates. Pro-Russia handlers were also offering incentives for finding "evidence" of Ukrainian drones in the Baltic states, a popular Kremlin falsehood and obsession. While investigating the recruitment scheme, the Vot Tak journalist also came across an offer to carry out malicious activities in Latvia. This was coordinated by a Telegram user with the nickname "Morozs", and the conversation was in Russian. "Morozs" sent the journalist photos of the building where arson was supposed to take place by means of "A couple of 'Molotov cocktails through the window" specifying that the target was an office. Later, the recruiter also indicated the name of the organization against which the attack was planned - the confederation of Ukrainian associations living in Latvia "Viche". It is an association of public organizations that represents the interests of Ukrainians living in Latvia and, among other things, organizes the provision of humanitarian aid and collection of donations for the Ukrainian community. "Morozs" promised a reward of 3,000 US dollars, or approximately 2,600 euros, to be paid in cryptocurrency, for the arson attack on the "Viche" office. This is not the first time Telegram has been used to order criminal tasks in Latvia. In 2024, an attack was organized in this way on the Museum of Occupation, where a bottle of petrol was thrown into its premises. As reported at the time by TV3's programme "Nekā personīga", referring to the online publication "Dossier Center", it was an operation organized by Russian special services, supervised by an officer of the Russian military intelligence service (GRU). The full Vot Tak investigation can be found here.