Feb. 24 — Russian special services are actively buying residential and commercial real estate in European countries near military bases, ports, and strategic infrastructure objects, reported The Telegraph, referring to sources from Western intelligence services.

According to intelligence reports, Russians may be creating a large-scale network of “Trojan horses” and using purchased real estate for spying, sabotage, and preparation of possible attacks in case the situation escalates.

Such real estate includes cottages, storage units, apartments, abandoned buildings, islands, and land plots in at least 10 European countries.

Current and former employees of European intelligence suggested that some of these places may already store drones, explosives, weapons, or have undercover agents operating there.

The Telegraph said that the amount of sabotage linked to Moscow in Europe has risen rapidly since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The Telegraph sources in intelligence note that some of these incidents may have been tests for bigger operations. According to them, Russia is staying below the level of open war to avoid activating Article 5 of the NATO collective defense — currently, their sabotage is aimed to paralyze transport, energy, and communications in NATO countries, and deny involvement afterward.

The Telegraph said the most notable case of real estate purchasing in Europe was when the Airiston Helmi company with ties to Russia bought 17 properties near strategic sea routes in Finland. During searches in 2018, investigators from Finland found docks, monitoring systems, a helipad, and modern communication equipment there.

After that, Finland banned Russian and Belarusian citizens from buying real estate. The Baltic states introduced the same limitations.

According to The Telegraph, many countries, including the United Kingdom, still have gaps in their laws that allow Russian investors to buy strategic real estate.

Journalists also said that Russian intelligence agencies have also bought properties near military bases in Norway and Sweden that could be used for monitoring or launching drones.

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