At the end of 2022, the agents of the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid narrowly escaped death, while consulting their mail. On November 30, 6 letters reach them, all trapped. One of the explosives goes off, and very slightly injures one of the employees. Letters addressed to the Ministries of Defence, Foreign Affairs, and the Prime Minister, as well as to military infrastructures will not find their target either.
Who is behind this failed attack? Even then, all eyes were on Moscow, which had invaded Ukraine. This Wednesday, January 25, a 74-year-old retired man was arrested in Miranda de Ebro, in northern Spain, according to a police source at AFP. For the moment, the authorities have not communicated more on the subject.
According to the United States, this attempt at destabilization would have been orchestrated by the Russian Imperial Movement (MIR), an ultranationalist, white supremacist paramilitary network, which would itself be guided by Russian intelligence, to disrupt the Old Continent. The Spanish Interior Ministry declined to comment on this information at this time.
Rear base in Saint Petersburg
The MIR was founded in 2002, in Saint Petersburg by Stanislav Anatolyevich, according to the Counter terrorism project, an American anti-terrorist NGO. It promotes in particular the restoration of the Tsar, and of the Russian Empire. Several of its members are subject to US economic sanctions and the organization has been considered a terrorist organization by the United States since 2020.
“This is the first time the United States has blacklisted white supremacist terrorists, which demonstrates how seriously this government takes this threat,” the Department’s counterterrorism coordinator said at the time. US State, Nathan Sales.
The organization notably intervened in the various conflicts in Ukraine which preceded the war started a year ago, supporting the Russian army and Ukrainian separatists, according to the Center for International Security and Cooperation of theStanford University.
Uniting the European and American far right
Since 2015, the MIR has been trying to extend its influence outside of Russia, and to mobilize far-right movements in the West. One of the leaders of the Stanislav Shevchuk movement, for example, met American neo-Nazis… on American soil. A moment immortalized by a photo taken in front of the White House. A first, according to Stanford University.
In 2019, MIR was very active in Europe, joining far-right conferences in Poland, Bulgaria and Austria, as well as Spain. In June 2020, the German government accused MIR of training local neo-Nazi groups militarily.
According to the words of American intelligence, relayed in the New York Times, the MIR would actually be influenced by the GRU, Russian intelligence. By pushing the MIR to act, the Russian services would test their ability to use unofficial groups to generate an escalation in the conflict between it and the West, and to destabilize democracies.