Western security officials say that these plots are part of a shadow war waged by Russian intelligence services. Arson destroys more than 1,000 businesses outside Warsaw.
Another IKEA burned down in Lithuania. A plan to place incendiary devices on cargo planes in Britain, Germany and Poland. But officials say the main figure in these conspiracies is not an intelligence agent. He is a former taxi driver who lives on a Russian farm.Alexei Vladimirovich Kolosovsky, 42, who has ties to criminal groups involved in hacking, selling fake IDs and car theft, has made himself a key player in this new form of unconventional conflict.
With the help of Russian intelligence, he oversaw the implementation of recent plots in Poland, Lithuania, Britain, Germany and possibly elsewhere, according to court documents and interviews with more than a dozen security officials from five European countries.Security officials said Kolosowski’s role was a new one. He is not a trained officer or an embedded asset of a foreign government. Officials said it was more of a service provider, working closely with intelligence officers — most of them from Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU, which bears primary responsibility for sabotage operations.
Agents like Kolosovsky are becoming more common in the Kremlin’s sophisticated and violent subversion campaign.They said Kolosowski brings into battle a vast network of criminals who know how to move goods and people without attracting the attention of law enforcement. Most importantly, these contacts reside and can travel in Europe, something that is becoming increasingly difficult for professional Russian intelligence officers.
Blaise Metroelli, who heads the British spy service known as MI6, said in a speech: “They are now operating in a zone between peace and war.”
“Russia is testing us in the gray zone with tactics just below the threshold of war.”Two security officials said Kolosovsky first came to the attention of Western intelligence services after two arson attacks in May 2024. Using an account on the messaging service Telegram, under the name “Warrior,” he recruited a network of agents, including a Ukrainian teenager, to plan attacks, according to the officials, as well as court records.
In 2021, Mr. Kolosovsky was briefly detained by Russian authorities, although it is not clear why.The services provided by Kolosovsky are a matter of necessity for Russia. Ken McCallum, head of Britain’s domestic security service MI5, said in 2024 that since the invasion of Ukraine, more than 750 Russian diplomats had been expelled from Europe, “the vast majority of whom are spies.”Nothing in Kolosowski’s public profile suggests a life filled with secret conspiracies. He seems to live modestly. His last post on one of the accounts was on December 15, 2020, his birthday. A photo appeared with his mother.
