Arson, vandalism, attacks on NATO vehicles: around Europe, mysterious acts of sabotage have been multiplying. And there's a pattern: the perpetrators were recruited on Telegram via accounts linked to Russian agencies. This week, we hear from Marta Vunš about how she and other journalists went undercover to figure out how this recruitment actually works. We're also asking whether Germany's nausea-inducing opera deserves its scandalised headlines, and why France has been low-key obsessed with a treasure hunt for the past three decades. 

 

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"‘Make a Molotov Cocktail’: How Europeans Are Recruited Through Telegram to Commit Sabotage, Arson, and Murder". You can read the investigation by Delfi, Der Standard, Paper Trail Media and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project here.

 

This week's Inspiration Station offering, sponsored by the European Cultural Foundation: Liquid Becomings. 

 

Other resources for this episode: 

Trailer: SANCTA | Staatsoper Stuttgart

Talk Eastern Europe: Spies, sabotage and Russia-West relations

 

00:22 The week EU politics got spicy

03:22 Bad Week: Unwell opera-goers

13:54 Good Week: France's mystery treasure-hunt winner

24:38 Interview: Marta Vunš on Russia's shady Telegram recruitment

38:46 The Inspiration Station - The European Cultural Foundation presents: Liquid Becomings

42:45 Happy Ending: Phew! Art saved from the garbage can

 

Mixing and mastering: Wojciech Oleksiak

Music: Jim Barne and Mariska Martina