According to a senior NATO source, Russia has been carrying out a “bold” sabotage campaign throughout NATO’s member states for more than six months, aiming to disrupt Ukraine’s armament supply routes and the decision-makers responsible.
Several security officials in Europe have reported a growing threat from Russian agents who pay local amateurs to commit high-risk, frequently debatable crimes on their behalf. These agents are frustrated with their own operations and come under increased scrutiny from security services.According to a senior NATO source, Russia has been carrying out a “bold” sabotage campaign throughout NATO’s member states for more than six months, aiming to disrupt Ukraine’s armament supply routes and the decision-makers responsible.
Several security officials in Europe have reported a growing threat from Russian agents who pay local amateurs to commit high-risk, frequently debatable crimes on their behalf. These agents are frustrated with their own operations and come under increased scrutiny from security services. The senior NATO official said Russian sabotage on NATO states amounted to a “pretty dangerous game, if (Russia believes) these things are always below the threshold of armed conflict,” that would not trigger the NATO Article 5 stipulation that an attack on one member state is an attack on the entire alliance. “Finding where that line is, is a difficult and dangerous calculation to make,” the official said, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s beleaguered invasion of Ukraine shows the Kremlin head was not always getting good military advice.
Russia is using the “full gamut” of hybrid operations, the official added. “We see everything from high-end operations in Europe, where we have seen as much as 400,000 euros ($433,000) paid for some type of intelligence activity, to some places where thugs are being hired for a couple of thousand euros.”We have to face the facts. Russia is big enough to have resources to fight a war against Ukraine and also maintain its security operations against European countries… against us. There are people who take part in the war against Ukraine, and then they are rotated to some other region or area. They have more experience. Their mindset is more violent. They are perhaps not so patient anymore trying to get results.”The accusation prompted alarm among security officials and governments because several similar incidents have occurred across Europe in recent months. The Museum of Occupation in Riga was targeted in an arson attack in February. A London warehouse burnt down in March and a shopping center in Warsaw went up in flames in May. Police in Germany arrested several people suspected of planning explosions and arson attacks in April, and French authorities launched an anti-terror investigation after detaining a suspected bomb-maker who was injured in a botched explosion earlier this month.
Multiple hacking attacks and spying incidents have been reported in different European countries. As the same time, the European Union has accused Russia and Belarus of weaponizing migration by pushing asylum seekers from third countries to its borders. There have also been several suspicious attacks against individuals: a Russian defector was found shot dead in Spain and an opposition figure exiled in Lithuania was brutally attacked with a hammer.Moscow has not claimed responsibility for any of the attacks and has not responded to CNN’s request for comment, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear he sees the war in Ukraine as part of a broader conflict with NATO and that his regime views the government in Kyiv as a mere proxy of the West. And with every increase of Western aid to Ukraine – whether through new weapons deliveries, or the imposition of new sanctions on Russia – the Kremlin has stepped up its saber-rattling.
Thornton said Russia was resorting to a campaign of sabotage as an alternative to a full-on war with NATO, which would be disastrous for Russia. “It’s long been a part of Russian military doctrine to try and avoid trying to face NATO on a battlefield, because they know they would lose to NATO forces,” he said. “What they are doing is undertaking activities which are below the threshold of armed conflict, so they are not inciting an Article 5 response from NATO,” he added.
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