The investigation of the “postal terrorist attacks” in Spain received a new impetus. As the researchers of the American publication The New York Times note with reference to “US officials who wished to remain anonymous”, the “mail bombs” received by some Spanish government institutions and the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid at the end of 2022 were sent by members of the far-right group “russian imperial movement”. According to them, the members of this movement acted on the instructions of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the russian Armed Forces, better known as the Main Intelligence Directorate. According to the NYT, the link between the perpetrators of the “postal terrorist attacks” and the GRU was established thanks to the coordinated actions of the Spanish police, American and British intelligence.
What is known about the “russian Imperial Movement”?
☝️ The Imperial Legion is a combat wing of the russian terrorist organization “russian Imperial Movement”, which consists mostly of russian nationalists and monarchists. The Legion is based in st. petersburg, but as the Spanish police found out, members of the group maintained ties with far-right Spanish organizations and far-right movements. Members of the organization took part in the annexation of Crimea, hostilities in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in particular in Slovyansk and Donetsk, in the civil war in Libya on the side of the forces of the Libyan National Army of General H. Haftar, supported by russia.
The “russian trace”?
In addition to Spain, in 2022 a wave of similar “mail attacks” swept across European countries. Bloody packages with animal organs and letters with threats arrived almost simultaneously to the Ukrainian embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia, Italy, the consulates general in Naples and Krakow, as well as the consulate in Brno in the Czech Republic. As you can see, the “mail” attack in Spain was another manifestation of a large-scale psychological attack. The “russian trace” in “postal affairs” is easily traced. After all, all European addresses have one common feature – they are involved in helping Ukraine in the fight against the russian aggressor.
According to Western experts, putin has given his military intelligence wide latitude to develop and conduct covert operations in Europe. However, the defeats of russian intelligence in recent years force the kremlin to use nationalist structures that are not formally connected to the special services for “dirty” cases, in the hope that responsibility for their actions will be more difficult to place directly on the kremlin. According to the Western intelligence services, the actions of the perpetrators were coordinated by officers of the notorious GRU special unit 29155, which was repeatedly accused of preparing high-profile terrorist attacks and murders in Europe. On their account – the attempt to poison the former colonel of the russian GRU s.skripal in Great Britain in 2018, the explosions of ammunition warehouses in the Czech Republic in 2014, the attempt on the arms seller o.gebrev in Bulgaria in 2015, the attempted coup in Montenegro in 2016. Of course, the kremlin rejects the involvement of russians in these crimes.
Why does the kremlin need it?
The main goal of the “postal” actions in Europe was to send a signal to the West that russia, with the help of its agents, can organize terrorist attacks throughout Europe and take revenge on countries that actively help Ukraine with impunity.
The emphasis on Spain is also not accidental – the state provides the most tangible military aid to Ukraine.
So, on November 30, a letter with an explosive device was also received by the Spanish company Instalaza, which manufactures weapons (including S90 anti-tank grenade launchers). Another such “package” was received at the NATO air base in Torrejon de Ardos near Madrid (the base provides intelligence information to Ukraine). As it turned out just now, the Prime Minister of Spain P. Sanchez and the Minister of Defense M. Robles also received “mail bombs” on November 24, which the police defused without reporting the incident. Spanish law enforcement officers do not rule out that the russians were helped in the preparation of “postal terrorism” by the far left political forces of Spain, which are opposed to the provision of military aid to Ukraine.
The bombshell, sent to members of the Spanish government, sought to persuade Spanish politicians to stop the flow of military aid that the Spanish government was sending to Kyiv. But in practice this led to the opposite effect. After the attack, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles stressed that no terrorist attacks will stop Spain from providing support to Ukraine. And if it turns out that pro-russian forces and special services are really behind the sending of explosives, it will only increase the level of support for Ukraine.
❗️ As we can see, this time the “cover operation” not only did not work, but will also have the opposite effect. An understanding of the global nature of the russian threat and the need to combat it is emerging even in states far from the borders of the russian federation.
