Warning: Europe must expect “violent acts of sabotage throughout the continent” from Russia, which also seems not to care about possible civilian victims. This is the warning that some European intelligence agencies have launched, cited by the Financial Times. According to the sources, cited by the London newspaper, «Russia has already begun to prepare more actively in secret bomb attacks and arson attacks to damage infrastructure on European territory, directly and indirectly, apparently without worrying about causing civilian casualties».
«A more aggressive and concerted effort»
Operations of this kind never seem to have completely disappeared from the Kremlin’s agenda, but recently “evidence of a more aggressive and concerted effort” has been increasing, according to the Financial Times citing the assessments of three European countries. Which add to what the head of German internal intelligence, Thomas Haldenwang, declared at a press conference last month: the risk of state-controlled acts of sabotage has “increased significantly”. Haldenwang added that Moscow now seems comfortable carrying out operations on European soil with “a high potential for damage.”
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There are some clues in this sense. For example, two German-Russian citizens were arrested last month in Bavaria on charges of plotting to attack military and logistics sites in Germany on behalf of Russia. Also in April, a pair of men were charged in the UK over the burning of a warehouse containing aid for Ukraine. According to the accusation of the English prosecutor’s office, they acted on behalf of the Russian government. At the same time, the Swedish security services are targeting some recent train derailments. While the Czech Transport Minister accused Russia of trying to destroy the signaling systems of the country’s railways. And the Estonian internal security service pointed the finger at Moscow for the attack suffered in February on the cars of the Interior Minister and some journalists.
Worries
Keir Giles, senior advisor at the Chatham House think tank, has no doubts: “The obvious conclusion is that there has been a real increase in Russian activity.” NATO, as explained by a senior European government official, intends to “increase awareness and attention” on the threat of Russian violence on European soil. In a statement late Thursday, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said allies were “deeply concerned.”
