Exposed: Russian plot to flood Europe with migrants to influence elections

A Russian spymaster plotted to use private armies to control migration into Europe, The Telegraph (London) can reveal.

Jan Marsalek, fugitive boss of the disgraced tech company Wirecard, planned to create a 15,000-strong band of mercenaries to control the border in the key migration route through Libya.

A wanted poster from 2020 shows Jan Marsalek, the former Wirecard chief operating officer. Credit: AP

Weaponising the flow of migrants is said to be a key aim of Vladimir Putin, the issue being a major factor in elections across Europe.

Marsalek, who is on the run, even bought a private military company and succeeded in getting the first Russian boots on the ground in Libya.

The revelations come at a key time in the war in Ukraine as Donald Trump puts pressure on Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, to get to the table with Putin for peace talks. European leaders have previously warned that the West could see a tidal wave of migrants if Ukraine falls to Russia.

Details of Marsalek’s plans can be revealed for the first time after a ring of UK-based spies he was running were found guilty at the Old Bailey courthouse on Friday.

Leader Orlin Roussev, 47, and his team of Bulgarian operatives face jail after being caught plotting kidnapping and surveillance campaigns in one of the Metropolitan Police’s biggest spying operations.

Marsalek has been on the run since 2020, when German payments firm Wirecard collapsed with a €1.9 billion ($3.2 billion) hole in its books. He was able to flee from Austria on a private jet and has been on Interpol’s most wanted list for his alleged part in the fraud since.

It is understood he is being investigated for espionage by several European countries, and the Metropolitan Police has not ruled out future charges against the spymaster.

It can be reported that Marsalek was working for the Kremlin while running Wirecard, Germany’s answer to PayPal, and planning to control flows of migration from Africa with the help of one of Britain’s allies.

The Telegraph has seen evidence that, in 2017, Austrian government officials had promised investment of more than €120,000 to help with the plan, which Marsalek told the EU would help “solve the migration crisis”. Yet the security for the plan was being overseen by a suspected colonel in Russia’s military intelligence service known as the GRU.

Warnings to officials in Germany and Austria about his involvement and his links to Russia were ignored, sources have told The Telegraph.

At the same time as he was trying to set up militia to influence migration, Marsalek also bought a Russian private army, the RSB Group, which has supported General Khalifa Haftar, the Libyan warlord.

Members of Poland’s Territorial Defence Force secure the fence at the closed Kuznica border crossing where thousands of migrants have been relocated by Belarusian soldiers in 2021. Credit: Getty Images

Since he fled in 2020, the RSB Group, which has been widely sanctioned, is understood to have been involved in security agreements in Sudan alongside the Wagner Group. Sudan is described by the EU as “at the heart of migratory routes connecting East and West Africa to the Mediterranean Sea and Europe”.

Mercenaries including Wagner have been fuelling migration by increasing instability and violence in parts of Africa under their control and by physically moving migrants to the borders and supporting smugglers, experts have said.

According to security sources, Marsalek has been involved in the reorganisation of Wagner’s interest in the region following the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the notorious mercenary leader, after his failed attempt at an insurrection in Russia.

Marsalek’s interests in private armies go back to his time at Wirecard. In 2017 and early 2018, he held meetings with Kilian Kleinschmidt, a humanitarian and former UN worker, to discuss plans for a project in Libya. The meetings were also attended by Gustav Gustenau, then a senior brigadier in Austria’s ministry of defence.

The Telegraph has seen a declaration of intent signed by the brigadier promising €20,000 towards the plan for “stabilisation and migration management in Libya”.

Kleinschmidt was promised a further €100,000 for the private-public partnership project through the Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology. It is understood that payments were not made.

Gustenau has denied any wrongdoing or a close relationship with Marsalek, saying he was authorised by his bosses to explore the project and was unaware at the time of Marsalek’s connection to Russia. The ministry has said no money changed hands.

In one meeting, Marsalek was heard joking that he had footage from body cameras that “the boys” were using, but said “we cannot use it as the boys are killing all the prisoners”, Kleinschmidt has told The Telegraph.

Minutes from a meeting at his villa in Munich to discuss the plans in early 2018, seen by The Telegraph, explain: “The priority for JM is ‘to close the border’ preferably via a ‘15,000 man-strong border police force’ that would be composed of former militias.

“Closing the border can be sold to the EU as ‘solving the migration crisis’ and the frozen Libyan funds in the EU can be used for this purpose.”

The plan failed in 2018 amid concern from Kleinschmidt’s team about the true purpose of the project and a failure by Marsalek to provide funding.

Kleinschmidt said the aim of his team had been to provide aid and help in the reconstruction of the country, not to train border forces.

It is known that, by this time, Marsalek owned the RSB Group and had secured Russian mercenaries on the ground through a mine-clearing contract. Their presence is said to have opened the door for Wagner in the region.

Kleinschmidt said he believed his team was intended to be used to “whitewash” the plans.

He told The Telegraph he had been warning about Russia’s “weaponisation” of migration for some time, adding: “As we know, migration has become a major theme for the Right sphere of politics. We have populists saying that ‘they’re coming, we have to stop them’.

“So the Russians clearly use that theme to make Europe nervous and influence elections.”

Telegraph, London

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