EXPLAINER: A deep dive into risks for undersea cables, pipes

PARIS — Deep under water, the pipes and cables that carry the modern world’s lifeblood — energy and information — are out of sight and largely out of mind. The Kremlin has denied involvement, calling suspicions that it sabotaged the pipelines “predictable and stupid.” Analysts found that hard to believe, saying that gas-producer Russia seemingly had most to gain from driving up market prices with such a strike and to punish Europe, by creating fear and uncertainty, in retaliation for its switching to other gas suppliers because of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. But because private firms don’t think about national security as broadly as governments do, they have not been alert to the “aggressive new threat” to cables from places like Russia, Sunak’s report said. “The ability of many Western nations to reliably detect, track, deter, and counter Russian undersea activities has atrophied,” said a 2016 study, “Undersea Warfare in Northern Europe,” that was led by Kathleen Hicks, now No. Retired French Vice Adm. Michel Olhagaray, a former head of France’s center for higher military studies, said Western nations “allowed themselves to fall asleep” and that they must now throw themselves into better protecting undersea cables and pipes that Russia has identified as both vital and vulnerable.