In the media
October 07, 2025
On Monday, 7th October, Vot Tak, a Russian-language media outlet, part of the TVP (Polish Public Television), interviewed Junior Reserach Fellow Maria Zotova about ICCT's new collaborative Report with Globsec on Russia's Crime-Terror Nexus.
Zotova explained how Russia has intensified hybrid warfare against Europe since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, increasingly relying on criminal networks and “disposable” recruits for sabotage, arson, and physical attacks. "The key thing here is that this responsibility can be shifted to someone else, or they can say, 'Oh, it wasn't us at all. It was some kind of European crime, or some private citizens, [...] we have nothing to do with it," she explains.
Zotova highlighted that these operations blur attribution to avoid escalation, exploit vulnerable Russian-speaking individuals for recruitment, and draw on long-standing ties between Russian intelligence and organised crime.
Watch the full interview (in Russian) here:
