Secret Service Warnings: Russia Plans Violent Acts of Sabotage Across Europe Without Care for Victims

European intelligence agencies have warned their governments that Russia is planning violent acts of sabotage throughout the continent, informs the Financial Times, quoted by News.ro.

Russia has already begun to more actively prepare covert bombings, incendiary bottle attacks and destruction of infrastructure on European soil, directly and through intermediaries, without much apparent concern for potential civilian casualties, intelligence officials believe.

Kremlin operatives have a long history of such operations – and have launched sporadic attacks in Europe in recent years – but evidence of more aggressive and effective action is now mounting.

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

“We estimate that the risk of acts of state-controlled sabotage has increased significantly,” said Thomas Haldenwang, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence service.

Russia now seems comfortable operating on European soil”[cu] a high potential for damage,” he said last month at a security conference 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.

At the end of April, two men were accused in the UK of causing a fire at a warehouse containing aid packages for Ukraine. British prosecutors accuse them of working for the Russian government.

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

Russia tried to destroy the signaling systems of the 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 attacks on journalists in Esto were carried out by Russian intelligence agents, the country’s Internal Security Service said. The French Defense Ministry also warned this year of possible Russian sabotage attacks on military sites.

“The obvious conclusion is that there has been a real intensification of Russian activity,” said Keir Giles, senior consultant at the Chatham House think tank.

“It cannot be said whether this reflects the fact that the Russians are investing more resources in this activity; if they are more negligent and are caught; or whether Western counterintelligence services have simply become better at detecting and stopping them. Be that as it may, however, many things are happening,” he added.

A senior European government official said that NATO security services are sharing information about “clear and convincing Russian malicious actions” that have been coordinated and on a large scale.

The time has come to “increase awareness and focus” on the threat of Russian violence on European territory, he added.

NATO issued a statement Thursday expressing deep concern about Russia’s “increasing malign activities on allied territory,” citing what it said was an “escalating campaign … in the eurozone -Atlantic”.

Growing fears of Russia’s appetite for physical damage against its adversaries follow a wave of accusations against Russia of disinformation and hacking.

On Friday, Germany promised consequences for Moscow – in a statement backed by the EU and NATO – over a 2023 cyber attack on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic party.

Meanwhile, a scandal exposing Russia’s attempts to co-opt far-right European politicians ahead of the upcoming European elections is still unfolding.

An intelligence official said Moscow’s sabotage efforts should not be seen as separate from other operations, saying the increased activity reflected Russia’s goal of exerting maximum pressure “across the board.”

Putin currently feels “emboldened” and will try to push the lines as hard as possible in Europe, on several fronts, whether through disinformation, sabotage or hacking. The increased aggressiveness of the Russian secret services also reflects the desire of spies in this country to reassert themselves after the worst failure suffered since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In the weeks following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, more than 600 Russian intelligence officers operating in Europe under diplomatic cover were expelled, causing serious damage to the Kremlin’s spy network across the continent.

In a recent report, analysts from the Royal United Services Institute in Great Britain highlighted the efforts that Russia has made to rebuild its presence in Europe.

There has also been a key strategic shift, with so-called “Special Influence Committees” coordinating country-by-country intelligence operations for the Kremlin, bringing together what were previously fragmented efforts by the country’s security services and other security actors. at the Kremlin.

As Russia’s operations have intensified, security services have been on high alert for threats and are looking to identify targets they may have missed.

Questions have been raised, for example, about a hitherto unexplained explosion at a BAE Systems munitions factory in Wales that supplies shells used by Ukraine. In October 2014, a Czech weapons depot where weapons for Kiev were stored was destroyed; later it turned out that Russian military intelligence agents had planted explosives in that place.

A huge fire broke out on Friday at a factory in Berlin owned by the Diehl arms company, which also supplies Ukraine. More than 160 specialist firefighters were called to tackle the blaze, and residents in much of the west of the capital were asked to keep their windows closed because of possible toxic fumes.

“As always with Russia, it is wise not to look for a single explanation for why it does something. There’s always a combination of things going on,” Giles said.

“These pinprick attacks that we’ve seen so far are, of course, to create disruption, but they can also be used for disinformation. And then there is the matter of what Russia learns from these attacks if it really wants to immobilize Europe… . They are training exercises”.

Publisher: MB

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