Poland warns Russia is moving from low-cost recruits to professional sabotage cells
ABW said 69 espionage cases in 2024 and 2025 matched the total from the previous 34 years as Russia professionalized sabotage cells.
- On Wednesday, Poland's Internal Security Agency reported Russia is shifting from low-cost, one-time recruits toward "professional" networks to carry out sabotage and other attacks across Europe.
- In 2024 and 2025, ABW initiated 69 espionage investigations—matching the total from the previous three decades—as Russia increasingly relies on "complex sabotage cells" using organized crime structures, resulting in 62 arrests.
- Russian intelligence services prioritize agents with law enforcement or military backgrounds and have intensified training on Russian territory, while Belarus and China also coordinate with Moscow on espionage activities.
- Poland faces "mass surveillance" operations intended to facilitate diversion, which ABW considers "the most serious challenge" it faces; Russian services now accept the potential "occurrence of fatalities," the agency observed.
- The Associated Press has tracked more than 150 incidents linked to Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine, as Russia continues what ABW describes as an "undeclared war with the Western world.
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Russia is changing its tactics in EU: from ’cheap’ agents to professional sabotage networks and involvement of organised crime
The Russian Federation is radically changing its approach to waging hybrid warfare in Europe, shifting from recruiting random individuals for low pay to creating deeply layered professional sabotage networks.
Associated Press News
Poland warns Russia is moving from low-cost recruits to professional sabotage cells
Poland's internal security service has warned that Russia is shifting from using individual recruits to ‘professional’ networks to carry out a campaign of sabotage across Europe.
Poland alerts: Russia shifts from low-cost recruits to professional sabotage units
Russia is transitioning from the utilisation of individual recruits to the establishment of more sophisticated networks to conduct acts of sabotage and other attacks across Europe, as highlighted in a report by Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW). European officials and law enforcement agencies have previously warned that Russia is engaging in a hybrid warfare strategy […]
Poland's internal security agency, ABW, warned in a report published on Wednesday that Russia is increasingly moving towards using professional networks rather than individual recruits to carry out sabotage and other attacks in Europe.
Poland's internal security services today warned that Russia is moving from individual recruitment to professional networks to carry out a sabotage campaign and other attacks in Europe.
WARSAW - Russia is shifting from recruiting individuals to more professional operations using organized crime networks in its campaign of sabotage, arson and vandalism as part of its hybrid war against Europe, the Polish counterintelligence service ABW warned in a report published today, quoted by Polish and foreign media. The AP noted that since Russia launched its war against Ukraine, it has counted more than 150 incidents linked to Moscow.
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