Russia Accused of Recruiting Danes for Sabotage Against Danish Defense Firms
\nAllegations of Russian Sabotage and Recruitment in Denmark<\/p>\n
Security Service Claims and Recent Developments<\/p>\n
COPENHAGEN, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Russia is recruiting Danish citizens to help plan sabotage against Danish defence firms with ties to Ukraine, the Nordic country’s\u00a0national security and intelligence service, PET, said on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hybrid warfare and sabotage on European soil gained renewed attention this week after Germany blamed Russia for an attempted drone attack at the Leipzig\/Halle Airport, prompting European Union members to call for\u00a0new sanctions against Russia.<\/p>\n
Statements from Danish Intelligence<\/p>\n
“Russia is both planning and carrying out acts of sabotage against defense companies and the defense industry in Europe,” PET’s head of counter-espionage, Emil\u00a0Gresholm, said in a statement.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We see that Danish companies are also targets of concrete Russian sabotage planning, and that Russian intelligence services are actively preparing acts of sabotage directed at the defense industry in Denmark,” he said.<\/p>\n
Russian Response and Denials<\/p>\n
Moscow has denied any involvement in hybrid warfare.<\/p>\n
Russia’s ambassador to Denmark, Vladimir Barbin, said in an emailed statement on Thursday that Gresholm had failed to provide any concrete evidence to support the allegations.<\/p>\n
Ambassador Barbin’s Statement<\/p>\n
“Gresholm’s statements should also be seen as an acknowledgement that Copenhagen’s reckless involvement in the conflict in Ukraine and the transformation of Danish territory into a production and logistics rear base for the Ukrainian armed forces poses security risks to Denmark and its citizens,” Barbin said.<\/p>\n
Methods of Recruitment and Potential Impact
\nUse of Social Media and Gaming Platforms<\/p>\n
Gresholm said PET has uncovered concrete examples of Russia attempting to recruit Danes on social media and gaming platforms for tasks such as taking\u00a0photos of companies or infrastructure, which could be used in the planning of acts of sabotage.<\/p>\n
Risks to Danish Citizens<\/p>\n
“It is extremely serious if ordinary Danes help Russian intelligence services — either deliberately or unwittingly,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Media Coverage<\/p>\n
Gresholm first made his comments in an interview with the\u00a0Berlingske newspaper.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reporting and Editorial Credits<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, additional reporting by Louise RasmussenEditing by Alexandra Hudson)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia Accused of Recruiting Danes for Sabotage Against Danish Defense Firms Allegations of Russian Sabotage and Recruitment in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-8848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-defence-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}