Russian Intelligence may be behind "explosive" gifts for officials in Spain – NYT

The United States of America believes that the packages of explosives that the Ukrainian Embassy in Spain, several top officials and institutions received in November and December had most likely been sent by the Russian group on the instructions of the GRU [Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia – ed.] supervisors.

Source: The New York Times, in its article based on conversations with American officials who commented on the condition of anonymity; European Pravda reports

Details: As far as they know, in recent weeks investigators have been thoroughly investigating the involvement of the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), a far-right imperialist monarchist group that has like-minded people in Europe and is believed to have ties to the Russian GRU. It turned out that important members of the group had been to Spain, and local police traced their links with right-wing radical organisations in that country.

US intelligence agencies believe that the Russians who coordinated the "explosive gifts" campaign in Spain belong to the Special Forces Training Centre No. 161, which is headquartered in Moscow, including the GRU's 29155 special unit, which has been repeatedly accused by Western intelligence agencies of destabilising the situation in Europe.

At the same time, it is unknown to what extent the Kremlin is directly involved in the special operation with "explosive gifts."

U.S. officials are concerned that the GRU officers behind the campaign may have hoped to catch European officials off guard and "test drive" the use of proxy groups in case they [Russians] wanted to use them for escalations in the future. The likely goal of the action was to send a signal that Russia could use its proxies to organise terrorist attacks in Europe and take revenge on countries that actively help Ukraine.

At the same time, there are no signs that Moscow is preparing anything like this; it is believed that Russian officials are refraining from doing so, fearing NATO's reaction.

American sources believe that Putin may still consider such an instrument of pressure if Russia continues to suffer major military setbacks in Ukraine.

The use of organisations such as RIM can be beneficial for Russian special services as they are not formally linked to government agencies and it is harder to blame their actions directly on the Kremlin.

European Pravda spoke in detail about a series of "explosive gifts" in Spain in the article Explosion in Embassy That Should Change Spain's Policy on Weapon Supply to Ukraine

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