‘Black Rus’ Sabotage Group Likely Responsible for Latvian Incursion

In a video statement released on Telegram on Wednesday, Oct. 7, a little-known group calling itself Chernye Rusy (Black Rus) claimed responsibility for the incursions of the Latvia-Belarus border on the night of Oct. 5-6.

As previously reported, armed and masked men attempted to smuggle around 20 illegal migrants into the country and, in a later separate raid, damaged and vandalized an electrical distribution cabinet and removed border surveillance cameras before retreating back into Belarus.

According to the “Black Rus” masked spokesman calling himself “Neman,” three members of the group “assume responsibility for the incident on the Latvian-Belarusian border in Kaplava parish, Krāslava region,” who then “re-entered Latvian territory near the village of Matuliški, stole video surveillance cameras, damaged the equipment, and remained unnoticed.”

The statement then went on to say that this was just the start of a sabotage campaign aimed at the European Union and NATO, which it called “a colossus on feet of clay that will collapse after our first strike.”

According to Latvia’s LSM state media outlet, citing Jānis Sārts, director of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga, “Black Rus” is a front for Russian or Belarusian intelligence services established to carry out sabotage or other hybrid operations.

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Exiled Belarusian military journalist Dmitry Khalko agreed, saying that “Black Rus” is a “proxy” just like Russia’s “little green men” who seized Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014, saying that they are a “fig leaf” intended to cover up special services involvement, allowing them to say, “it’s not us, we don’t know anything.”

Lukashenko denies involvement

At a “readiness review” meeting of the Belarusian interior ministry’s 7th Separate Special Police Brigade on Tuesday, Oct. 13, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed the cross-border incident was a “false flag” operation “orchestrated by Latvians themselves as a publicity stunt to secure funds from the European Union.”

The BelTA state news agency, reporting on the event, cited Lukashenko as saying, “We had absolutely nothing to do with this, with the claim that we – allegedly – crossed into their territory, with masked men or military personnel seizing someone or pushing a group of migrants across. You couldn’t dream up a more ridiculous story.”

Lukashenko went on to dismiss reports in the Western media of a military threat from Russia and Belarus, describing it as utter nonsense before claiming the Baltics possess military ambitions against Minsk.

“They need money. Neither the three Baltic states nor Poland possess the power to satisfy their [military] ambitions,” Lukashenko said.

“Take Poland, for instance: It is purchasing tanks and other weaponry, which are not cheap these days. There is no firewood for the population, yet they feel compelled to buy tanks and other military hardware.”