FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The video began circulating in early August, mostly on Telegram channels known for their Russian nationalist and pro-war sentiments. A woman's resonant voice narrates as images of Russia's economic chaos in the 1990s transition to imperial and church symbols, including St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square.
"Dear compatriots living outside Russia, we are addressing you," the narrator says.
"Your time has come to become heroes and go down in history! Write to us and we will help you defend your right to life, freedom and future. We will help you defend the Homeland!"
"Respectfully, Military Intelligence of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation," the video concludes, directing viewers to a recruitment bot, an automated program within Telegram.
For months, Western intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies have been warning of a disturbing trend: random “freelancers,” “representatives,” “available agents” – recruited, usually through Telegram and usually without their knowledge, to carry out covert and sometimes destructive tasks such as surveillance, arson, sabotage, and the spread of disinformation.
According to authorities, the agencies that recruit and employ are often directly or indirectly linked to Russia. This includes the “Military Intelligence of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” commonly known as the GRU.
"We are seeing an increasing number of people who we would describe as 'agents' recruited by foreign intelligence services," Dominic Murphy, commander of Britain's Metropolitan Police, said on September 18, when he announced the arrest of two men who were allegedly recruited to set fire to a warehouse linked to Ukraine.
The men are suspected of being recruited, according to police, by the Wagner Group, the half-defunct Russian mercenary company whose operations are now largely controlled by the Ministry of Defense.
Behind the “Protect the Homeland” video and a related recruitment bot is a GRU-affiliated unit known as the Melodiya Intelligence Center. The center was responsible for a similar recruitment bot in 2024 that featured the fictional “Eye of Sauron” figure from the Lord of the Rings films.
New findings from Systema, the Russian research arm of Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL), link recruitment videos directly to the GRU for the first time.
The man behind the “Defend the Fatherland” video and the recruitment bots is Melodiyat’s deputy director, Yevgeny Rasskazov. He is also a Russian neo-Nazi blogger and well-known mercenary who has fought in Ukraine, celebrated Adolf Hitler’s birthday, called for the castration of Ukrainians, and described the war as a sexual experience.
“When a man goes to war, it’s sexual desire,” Rasskazov said in a video interview broadcast in 2021, about six months before Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine.
"War keeps the desire alive as much as a woman. When he kills [an enemy], he enjoys the fact that his wife remains a widow. He enjoys how they cry as a family, how he comes home in a coffin. And then he gets up!"
From the grace of Wagner
In October 2023, General Vladimir Alekseyev, the GRU’s number two, presented medals to the men who had fought to capture the Ukrainian stronghold of Bakhmut. Mercenaries, and former released prisoners, who fought with the Wagner Group played a key role in the capture of the city about five months earlier.
Among those receiving awards, according to a video on Telegram, was Mikhail Turkanov, a former mixed martial arts fighter and avid fan of the Zenit St. Petersburg football team. Turkanov is also a veteran of a GRU-affiliated unit called Espanola.
This right-wing organization was formed in 2022 and grew out of extreme football fan clubs known as "ultras".
Espanola members, many of whom are former ultras, embrace Nazi symbols: the brigade’s number is 88, symbolizing a Nazi salute, the eighth letter of the alphabet twice, HH for Heil Hitler. Turkanov himself was fined in 2019 for publicly displaying tattoos of the Nazi cross and the coded Nazi slogan “14/88.”
Public displays of Nazi symbols are illegal in Russia.
Members of Espanola have also been killed fighting in the Ukrainian war.
Espanola is formally independent, but in fact it is part of the Volunteer Corps, a secret network of unofficial militias, volunteer organizations, and paramilitary units with links between them – and to the GRU.
Some of the units include parts of the Wagner Group, which disbanded after the death of its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, while what remained of the group was integrated into the Ministry of Defense or elsewhere.
Most of the recruitment and coordination for these groups is carried out by Redut, a secret company set up by the GRU in the months before Prigozhin's death in August 2023.
Alekseyev, the GRU general, has been called one of the founders of Wagner. He is also credited with conceiving the Redut recruitment system.
In early 2024, Espanola officials created a semi-clandestine group called Melodiya, hiring communications specialists, cyberintelligence officers, and others. Its deputy director is Rasskazov, who uses the nom de guerre “Topaz.”
Available agents
Kampanja e rekrutimit në aplikacionin Telegram ka alarmuar inteligjencat perëndimore dhe ukrainase, pjesërisht për shkak të vështirësisë për ta vëzhguar dhe zbuluar, si dhe për t’i penguar planet e mundshme të tij.
“Mos u bëni agjent në dispozicion”, tha policia gjermane në një deklaratë të pazakontë më herët këtë muaj.
Të krijuara nga njësitet e lidhura me GRU-në si Melodiya, këto kampanja shpërndahen pjesërisht për shkak të individëve aleatë ose të një mendimi të ngjashëm dhe “influencerëve”.
Shembull i kësaj është Aleksei Zhivov, një bloger në Telegram me më shumë se 110.000 ndjekës dhe i lidhur me Espanola. Më 26 nëntor të vitit 2024, pasi tifozët e një skuadre futbolli të kategorisë së dytë të futbollit anglez ftuan Rusinë të lëshonte raketa bërthamore ndaj rivalëve të tyre, Zhivov amplifikoi postimin nga X.
Ai postoi një mesazh rekrutimi në anglisht, duke kërkuar nga njerëzit të bashkohen me Espanola dhe përfshiu një link për botin Syri i Sauronit me mbishkrimin: “[Link] për ata që duan të ndihmojnë Rusinë në mënyrë të vazhdueshme”.
Një shembull tjetër është një kanal në gjuhën spanjolle i quajtur “Los Sombreros Blancos” – Kapelat e Bardha – me rreth 33.000 ndjekës. Kanali, që zakonisht poston mesazhe antiglobaliste dhe proruse në spanjisht, ripostoi postimin e Syri i Sauronit në shkurt.
Kapelat e Bardha është pjesë e një rrjeti prej rreth 200 faqeve dhe kanaleve ideologjikisht të ngjashme të quajtura Portal Kombat, një lojë fjalësh mbi një video-lojë të njohur me gjakderdhje. Rrjeti riposton materiale nga mediat shtetërore ruse dhe kanale Telegrami pro-Kremlin në frëngjisht, gjermanisht, anglisht, spanjisht dhe gjuhë të tjera, përfshirë rumanishten, e cila dominon në Moldavi.
Shumica e faqeve pretendojnë se marrin informacionin e tyre nga një entitet i quajtur Rrjeti Pravda, i cili shpërndan rregullisht narrative antiperëndimore.
Dy kanale Telegrami, Selsky Rozum në çekisht dhe Olej w Gwovie në polonisht, u krijuan në të njëjtën ditë, më 13 mars 2022. Kanalet kanë avatarë pothuajse identikë. Të dy postuan linkun e Syrit të Sauronit në të njëjtën ditë, më 25 prill 2025, brenda pak minutash nga njëri-tjetri, rreth orës 14:10, me kohën e Moskës.
Një llogari tjetër Telegrami që ripostoi shpejt videon “Mbroj Atdheun” ishte ajo e Russell Bentley, një amerikan që luftoi në Donbas të Ukrainës së bashku me paramilitarët rusë qysh më 2014, në vitin e parë të luftës atje. I njohur si Kauboi i Donbas, Bentley fitoi shumë ndjekës në YouTube dhe platforma tjera.
Ai u vra në Ukrainë në prill 2024. Nuk dihet se kush postoi videon pas vdekjes së tij në llogarinë e Bentleyt.
Rusia dhe nazistët e saj
I lindur në rajonin Donetsk të Ukrainës, Rasskazov u radikalizua në vitin 2014, rreth kohës kur Rusia nxiti luftë në Donbas rajonet Donjeck dhe Luhansk të Ukrainës kundër forcave qeveritare.
He joined a far-right paramilitary unit called Rusich, led by Aleksei Milchakov, a Russian who openly boasted of Nazi sympathies and racist ideologies. Rusich and Milchakov themselves have been linked to crimes in Ukraine and Syria, and were classified as “global terrorist organizations” by the US in 2022.
Rasskazov rejoined the fighting in Ukraine shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
"Now, I've come to kill Ukrainians. That's all," he told an interviewer.
In recent years, Rasskazov has appeared more lenient in public appearances. He has participated in meetings of the Russian parliament on the protection of the family, according to Novaya Gazeta — in line with President Vladimir Putin's claim that Russia is a defender of what he calls traditional values.
Last February, Rasskazov and several members of Espanola spoke to students at a Moscow school, where “veterans discussed with children the importance of education, themes of love and homeland, and shared their life experiences and worldviews.”
The number of the school where the speech was given was 88, the numerical code for the Nazi salute.
It is not clear whether Rasskazov produced or directed this video himself.
A conversation with the "GRU"
If you click on the link in the Telegram post, "Protect the Homeland", it takes you to a bot called GRU.
If you click on the bot, you will be asked to choose your preferred language, Russian or English, and fill out a short questionnaire with your name, address, profession, and reasons why you want to join the program.
A REL correspondent who identified himself as a Riga resident filled out the questionnaire one weekday evening.
“Your message has been sent to the GRU,” the bot replied, and a response came within three minutes from someone who appeared to be a real person.
"Good evening. We are glad that there are still Russian patriots. How can you help us?" the person wrote.
When asked by REL what they were interested in, the person immediately replied: "Ukrainian fuel trucks. Do you know where to find them?"
The person then added: "In the port [of Riga]. They are civilians. We want to know where they are and take a picture of them."
When the REL correspondent asked him about the payment, he cursed and responded angrily.
"Get out of here!" he wrote.
"Money is not necessary. Love for the homeland should warm and nourish you. You want money for photography, do you have any sense? There are dozens like you in Riga alone. No one has ever thought of asking for money for photography. Goodbye!"
That was the end of the conversation./ REL
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