Romania's Intelligence Service (SRI) said on October 26 that it had identified a suspected sabotage network whose activities, according to the agency, were coordinated from Russia. The investigation is linked in part to a fire on September 14 at an industrial site in Brașov, near CARFIL SA, a company belonging to the state-owned defense group ROMARM.
In a statement issued by the Romanian intelligence agency, SRI said several nationals of former Soviet states living in European Union countries were involved. Judicial proceedings and investigations are under way in Romania and other European countries, the agency said. Its public statement did not name the suspects or provide specific evidence linking them to coordinators in Russia.
The agency alleges that the suspected network operated beyond Romania. According to SRI, possible targets included public and private arms manufacturers, as well as other industrial and military facilities in the region. It also linked the investigation to other suspected sabotage attempts against sites used for defense activities and the training of Ukrainian military personnel.
SRI described what it considers a typical recruitment pattern: an offer of money to monitor or photograph facilities, potentially followed by more dangerous assignments and threats against participants. The agency also cautioned that individual signs of such activity do not, by themselves, establish a person's involvement in sabotage.
SRI said it was continuing its investigation alongside Romanian law enforcement agencies and international partners. SRI's claims about coordination from Russia and the saboteurs' alleged targets have not been independently corroborated in the published material.