Eerik-Niiles Kross, former intelligence co-ordinator for Estonia, has said that European Union authorities had not paid enough attention to Russian intelligence special operations. By 2017 fully 63 fight clubs in Germany alone had been identified with dozens more in the rest of Europe. Nine of them were known to have founders who were all officers of the GRU (Russian millitary intelligence) or FSB (heir to the KGB).
Kross pointed out that by that time, the GRU had given combat training to a neo-Nazi group in Hungary and to similar groups in Slovakia. The martial arts (fight) clubs teaching an offensive style called “systema”, are all said to have connections to the GRU or FSB intelligence services in Russia, tasked with recruiting potential troublemakers throughout Europe and also North America.
The Systema Ryabko school in Europe, has branches….
(Read more: Estonian Life No. 37 2020 paber- and PDF/digi)
Laas Leivat, Toronto
