Russia unleashes havoc in Europe: bombs, arsonists, destruction of the logistics route. Romania, a target

Russia unleashes havoc in Europe: bombs, arsonists, destruction of the logistics route. Romania, a target.

The Financial Times has seen intelligence assessments from three European countries showing evidence of aggressive and coordinated Russian sabotage.

“We assess that the risk of state-controlled acts of sabotage has increased significantly,” said Thomas Haldenwang, head of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), according to the FT, quoted by pravda.com.ua.

Russia unleashes havoc in Europe: bombs, arsonists, destruction of the logistics route. Romania, a target

Haldenwang pointed out that Russia is now comfortable conducting operations on European soil with a “high damage potential”.

A senior European official has said that NATO’s security services are providing clear and convincing information about “Russian sabotage”, coordinated and on a large scale, warning that it is time to raise awareness and focus on the threat of Russian aggression on European soil .

An intelligence official said Moscow’s sabotage efforts should not be viewed in isolation from other operations. The increase in subversive activity reflects Russia’s desire to exert maximum pressure across Europe.

Putin now feels “emboldened” and will try to push the dividing lines in Europe as far as he can on several fronts: through disinformation, sabotage or hacking.

The Kremlin uses a proxy network to infiltrate European nations and conduct a series of intelligence and sabotage operations.

In a recent report, Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, or RUSI, warned that Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, is “restructuring the way it manages the recruitment and training of special forces troops and rebuilding the support apparatus to be able to infiltrate European countries.”

Romania, with Ukrainian pilot training centers for F-16 aircraft, with weapons transport routes to Ukraine, with the largest NATO base in Europe, cannot escape Russia’s sabotage operations.

In this context, it is not surprising that drones were observed by the military of the 57 Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base, near the airport.

Even if “they were probably of a commercial type”, as MApN communicated, in this case the Military Prosecutor’s Office was notified.

Equally dubious was the Russian Geran-II drone discovered not far from Brăila, “lost” on Romanian territory, or the unmanned vessel with a jamming system discovered in the Black Sea, near Tuzla, on April 3, by the Coast Guard Romanian.

Russian agents operate in Norway

The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) has discovered that Russian intelligence agents are operating in western Norway, which could mean that Russia may be preparing sabotage operations at critical infrastructure.

Torgils Lutro, head of PST in western Norway, pointed out that the targeted area has Northern Europe’s largest naval base, Haakonsvern, as well as important oil and gas facilities such as Mongstad, Kollsnes and Sture, along with power plants and other related facilities of the electricity supply.

“We see that some of Russia’s intentions could be to prepare acts of sabotage. Agents are operating throughout the area and moving,” said Lutro, stating that several Russian agents were exposed, without mentioning their number.

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Lutro believes that, in addition to personal gain, Russia wants to damage Norway’s reputation among its allies, according to pravda.com.ua.

“It is clear that one of Russia’s goals is to make us look bad. They will try to show that we are not in control of the situation or that we cannot help our allies with exports in potential future critical situations,” he said.

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The PST said that Russian intelligence activities on Norwegian soil have intensified since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“Russian intelligence agents work against a variety of targets, such as critical and vulnerable infrastructure and military bases. They also have a clear goal of exposing Norwegian contingency plans,” Lutro said.

Against the background of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Norwegian authorities expelled more than 15 employees of the Russian Embassy in Norway, being suspected of intelligence activities. As a result, Russia has had to reconsider the use of its intelligence tools.

“It is not easy for us to find out who these agents are. They blend in with the crowd, they don’t necessarily have Russian citizenship, but they can be motivated to act on behalf of Russia, by money or threats.