Russia's mysterious sabotage campaign
Arson, vandalism, attacks on NATO vehicles: around Europe, mysterious acts of sabotage have been multiplying. And there's a pattern: the perpetrators were recruited on Telegram via accounts linked to Russian agencies. This week, we hear from Marta Vunš about how she and other journalists went undercover to figure out how this recruitment actually works. We're also asking whether Germany's nausea-inducing opera deserves its scandalised headlines, and why France has been low-key obsessed with a treasure hunt for the past three decades.
Inspiration Station recommendations:
This week's Inspiration Station offering, sponsored by the European Cultural Foundation: Liquid Becomings.
Other resources for this episode:
"‘Make a Molotov Cocktail’: How Europeans Are Recruited Through Telegram to Commit Sabotage, Arson, and Murder". You can read the investigation by Delfi, Der Standard, Paper Trail Media and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project here.
Talk Eastern Europe: Spies, sabotage and Russia-West relations
Producers
Morgan Childs and Wojciech Oleksiak
Mixing and mastering
Wojciech Oleksiak
Music
Jim Barne and Mariska Martina
Thanks for listening! If you enjoy our podcast, we'd love it if you'd consider chipping in a few bucks a month (many currencies are available).
You can also help new listeners find the show by leaving us a review or giving us five stars on Spotify