Russia plotting sabotage across Europe, intelligence agencies warn

https://www.ft.com/content/c88509f9-c9bd-46f4-8a5c-9b2bdd3c3dd3

by DooblusDooizfor

29 comments

  1. >**Russia plotting sabotage across Europe, intelligence agencies warn**

    >*Assessments suggest Kremlin agents preparing covert bombings, arson and attacks on infrastructure*

    >European intelligence agencies have warned their governments that Russia is plotting violent acts of sabotage across the continent as it commits to a course of permanent conflict with the west. 

    >Russia has already begun to more actively prepare covert bombings, arson attacks and damage to infrastructure on European soil, directly and via proxies, with little apparent concern about causing civilian fatalities, intelligence officials believe. 

    >While the Kremlin’s agents have a long history of such operations — and launched attacks sporadically in Europe in recent years — evidence is mounting of a more aggressive and concerted effort, according to assessments from three different European countries shared with the Financial Times. 

    >Intelligence officials are becoming increasingly vocal about the threat in an effort to promote vigilance. 

    >“We assess the risk of state-controlled acts of sabotage to be significantly increased,” said Thomas Haldenwang, head of German domestic intelligence. Russia now seems comfortable carrying out operations on European soil “[with] a high potential for damage,” he told a security conference last month hosted by his agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.  

    >Haldenwang spoke just days after two German-Russian nationals were arrested in Bayreuth, Bavaria, for allegedly plotting to attack military and logistics sites in Germany on behalf of Russia. 

    >Two men were charged in the UK in late April with having started a fire at a warehouse containing aid shipments for Ukraine. English prosecutors accuse them of working for the Russian government. 

    >In Sweden, security services are meanwhile investigating a series of recent railway derailments, which they suspect may be acts of state-backed sabotage.

    >Russia has attempted to destroy the signalling systems on Czech railways, the country’s transport minister told the FT last month. 

    >In Estonia, an attack on the interior minister’s car in February and those of journalists were perpetrated by Russian intelligence operatives, the country’s Internal Security Service has said. France’s ministry of defence also warned this year of possible sabotage attacks by Russia on military sites. 

    >“The obvious conclusion is that there has been a real stepping up of Russian activity,” said Keir Giles, senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, the think-tank.

    >“One cannot tell if that’s a reflection of the fact that the Russians are throwing more resources at it; whether they are being more sloppy and getting caught; or whether western counter-intelligence has simply become better at detecting and stopping it,” he added. “Whatever it is though — there is a lot going on.”

  3. The EU should hurry up to send yet another one of those stern warnings… /s

  5. Fortunately for us in Poland we don’t have many Russian immigrants and not many sympathizers with Putin’s regime so infiltrating and commiting these acts is more difficult than in many Western countries.

  6. More Europeans need to wake up to the reality of Russian aggression against us.

    [https://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2024/04/26/russias-hybrid-war-against-the-west/index.html](https://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2024/04/26/russias-hybrid-war-against-the-west/index.html)

    [https://www.cer.eu/publications/archive/policy-brief/2023/protecting-europes-critical-infrastructure-russian-hybrid](https://www.cer.eu/publications/archive/policy-brief/2023/protecting-europes-critical-infrastructure-russian-hybrid)

    [https://eucrim.eu/articles/eu-eastern-partnership-hybrid-warfare-and-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/](https://eucrim.eu/articles/eu-eastern-partnership-hybrid-warfare-and-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/)

    [https://www.understandingwar.org/report/russian-hybrid-warfare](https://www.understandingwar.org/report/russian-hybrid-warfare)

  8. Yet except Finland all borders are open to russians and the immigration that causes radicalization backed by russia…

  9. Lol if something really happens we can’t say we were not warned.

  11. Russia isn’t adding much positivity to mankind “recently”. They made this deliberate choice.

  12. In today’s episode of ‘Nothing New’ Russia’s treading on us. And the concept of ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ is dead.

  13. Maybe we should start by coming down hard on every penny and cent of Russian money in Europe.

  14. There will have to be a day when Europe says that’s enough and responds in unity.

  15. Finally becoming the pariah state it was always meant to be.

  16. russiа has the advantage, because Eu societies are free and it is easier to move unchecked. We have the advantage because they are a mess and it is time for them to cry.

  17. But we have the ultimate punishment for the saboteurs. We can send them to Russia for free.

  19. And what should the average citizen do with this information? Just be afraid don’t go outside?

  20. If they want to undermine our will not to strike them, this is the correct way to go about it

  22. At this point we should just start mass deporting russians back to russia. They needs to fix their shit country themselfs.

  23. Now I wonder who are they going to blame those onto, in order to avoid more people hating them?

  24. try to find something good that comes out of Russia challenge *impossible*

  25. If this actually happens, how is it not an effective declaration of war? Russian aggression can only be stopped or deterred through force. Let’s start with seizing all Russian assets and using them to fund defence spending.

  27. Time for a good old fashioned witch hunt for Russians living in EU. Why should they get to live here when they can be so easily persuaded to turn against it.

  28. I’ve long been opposed to the death penalty, due to its barbarizing effect on civil society. But I think perhaps it has come time for Europe to reinstate capital punishment, for a limited set of crimes: treason and espionage.

    If our rules of engagement can’t allow us to shoot at the Russian forces operating in Ukraine, we could at least give the gallows to the Russian forces operating inside the EU. Make those individuals pay the usual price of warfare, if acts of war is what they’re willingly committing.

    We might not be able to stop every saboteur, but we can at least make them think very hard about their priorities.

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