A far-right Russian militia is calling on its members to spy on neighboring Baltic states. Experts fear that attacks in NATO countries could be imminent – and that the Kremlin will lose control of Russian groups involved in the war.
A Russian neo-Nazi paramilitary group has called on its members via Telegram to collect information on border and military activities in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The appeal was launched last week on the official telegram channel of Task Force Rusich.
Task Force Rusich is closely associated with the Wagner Group, a military unit led by a close ally of Vladimir Putin and currently leading the Russian offensive to capture the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
An anonymous source told the British Guardian that the “extraordinary move” by Task Force Rusich indicates that the paramilitaries are frustrated and disillusioned with the way the war is going in Ukraine.
This in turn raises the question of how much control President Vladimir Putin still has over Russian forces involved in the war.
The source suggests that the groups could potentially use more extreme methods of their own to wage the Ukrainian war, but attacking a NATO state would escalate the conflict.
According to the Guardian, it is unlikely that the Kremlin itself could have anything to do with the call for espionage on Telegram, since the state espionage service undoubtedly already has information about military and border activities in the Baltic States.
