Russia accuses West of forging Latin American arms-smuggling evidence

No evidence offered; Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ukraine silent

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service on Monday accused intelligence agencies of an unnamed Western country, working with Ukraine, of preparing an operation to portray Moscow as an illegal supplier of weapons to drug cartels and organized crime groups in Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela.

According to the agency, the alleged operation would involve transporting Russian-made weapons captured by Ukrainian forces during the war in Ukraine to the three Latin American countries. The weapons would then be presented as part of an illicit Russian supply chain, accompanied by forged documents seeking to link representatives of the Russian Armed Forces to the transfers, the Foreign Intelligence Service said.

The agency further alleged that those behind the plan were preparing photographs and videos intended to show Russia supplying weapons to Latin American criminal organizations through intermediaries. The Foreign Intelligence Service provided no public evidence to support the allegations and did not identify which Western country it accused of orchestrating the operation.

“The authors of this provocation naively hope in this way to undermine Russia’s constructive relations with the countries of this region and induce Latin American governments to support the anti-Russian policy pursued by the West,” the intelligence service said.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry amplified the claim on social media, posting a Spanish-language message on X that described the alleged plan as an example of “stereotyped thinking” by the West.

The Foreign Intelligence Service framed the alleged operation within what it characterized as an information war waged by “Euro-Atlantic elites” against Russia since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. As precedents, the agency cited the April 2022 Bucha massacre, which it described as a “bloody staging,” and the 1939 Gleiwitz incident, a Nazi German false-flag operation carried out before the invasion of Poland.

As of Monday, the governments of Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela had not publicly responded to the allegations. Ukraine also had not issued an official response to the statement.

The accusation follows similar claims Russian officials made in late June, when Moscow accused Kyiv of maintaining ties with Mexican criminal organizations. The Ukrainian Embassy in Mexico publicly rejected those allegations at the time, describing them as part of a Russian disinformation campaign and denying any ties to Mexican drug trafficking organizations.