kyiv and Western special services are carrying out an aggressive campaign of brainwashing, claimed Alexander Bortnikov
Western and Ukrainian intelligence services are trying to recruit young Russians to carry out terrorist attacks against their own country, Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a session of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAK), which he chairs, Bortnikov claimed, according to the NAK statement, that amid the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kyiv, “Ukraine and the special services of its Western sponsors have launched aggressive brainwashing and recruitment. [campaign] on our fellow citizens. »
One of the main tasks of Kyiv and its Western donors is to target “especially the younger generation to involve them in sabotage, terrorist and extremist activities”, he added.
Since February 2022, when Moscow launched its operation against Ukraine, Russia has prevented 118 terrorist crimes prepared by young people and minors, Bortnikov said.
The FSB director also pointed out “a serious threat” arising from the attempts of some students, who are influenced by various “destructive subcultures” to lay the groundwork for attacks on Russian schools and other educational institutions. “A part of [these subcultures] are coordinated from Ukrainian territory,” he added, according to the statement.
With this in mind, NAK members discussed measures to prevent terrorist activities. These measures include awareness campaigns in educational establishments, with a focus on “the fight against terrorism and neo-Nazi ideology among young people” in the former Ukrainian regions that voted to join Russia last fall.
The committee meeting came after prominent military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was murdered in an explosion at a St. Petersburg St. Café earlier this month. The explosion, which also left dozens injured, was caused by a statuette brought to the scene by Darya Trepova, 26, currently in police custody.
However, Russian authorities said the bomb plot was orchestrated by Ukraine’s special services using operatives collaborating with Alexei Navalny’s FBK anti-corruption fund, which was designated an extremist organization in 2021.
At the end of February, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the West had “have never hesitated to use both radicals and extremists for their own interests.” “They always use against us whatever is at hand,” he said at the time.