As Ukraine war rages, Russia activates sabotage plans in Europe: Experts

Russia is accused of putting into effect psychological, economic and military operations planned by the USSR. “This is an unprecedented phenomenon in Western post-war history.” The Financial Times this month cited intelligence of imminent Russian hybrid operations in Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and a report from Chatham House, a London-based think tank, detailed incidents across Europe that “match predictions of what Russia would attempt to do in advance of an open conflict with NATO”. “The interference has not only remained within Russia’s borders, but has also reached Finnish territory.” Giles explained, that the GPS jamming “may have started with absolutely nothing in mind with regard to disrupting air traffic across Europe … But once it became clear that those disruptive effects are substantial and there’s no downside to Russia for doing it, then there’s no reason why they shouldn’t expand.” This nuisance approach may not sound alarming for European security, but at the very least it suggests that Russia feels no constraints against performing any disruption of which it is capable. As a result, security had to be elevated drastically within weeks.” In addition to military targets, Fitsanakis added, “Their skills are evolving with an eye to intensification, in case of an all-out war with NATO.” In that case, sabotage operations would spread to the full gamut of network industries, aiming to shut down travel, power and telecommunications overnight, sending civilian society back to the 19th century and creating political pressure on governments to sue for peace – what Fitsanakis calls, “mass-scale psychological objectives”. Giles said all this allows Russia to steal a march on Europe, “ idea of how much you can do without precipitating conflict has been precipitated by Western countries not setting boundaries.” “The fact that there’s no downside is the defining factor of how Russia has seen sub-threshold operations over the last decade.”