GRU Uses Telegram to Spread Arson and Sabotage Job Ads Across Europe

Russia's GRU has been accused of using Telegram to spread over 20 million job advertisements concealing offers to commit arson and sabotage, targeting defense workers, NATO vehicles, and communications infrastructure across at least 20 countries.

The campaign, which began in the first half of 2026, was documented by Vot Tak, a Russian-language investigative outlet operated by Poland's TVP World. The GRU has been using aged Telegram accounts to post job ads that appear to be legitimate but actually contain offers for sabotage and arson.

The recruits are contacted through separate channels and assigned tasks, typically in exchange for cryptocurrency payments. According to Vot Tak, journalists posing as potential recruits were offered $1,500 to burn a NATO military vehicle in Lithuania, $3,000 for an arson attack on a Ukrainian organization in Riga, and $500 for filming drone launches near a NATO training base.

The campaign has been linked to 151 Russian-linked sabotage incidents in Europe between February 2022 and February 2026, with Poland accounting for 31 of those incidents. The perpetrators are mostly ordinary citizens with no formal intelligence background, but the GRU is increasingly shifting towards organized-crime professional sabotage cells.