European intelligence agencies say Moscow has launched a campaign of sabotage, arson and disinformation against the continent. Sometimes, it is focused on specific targets related to support for the Ukrainian war effort, but more often it is simply aimed at causing chaos and unease.
In Lithuania, an Ikea shop was set on fire; in Britain, seven people were charged over an arson attack on a business with links to Ukraine; in France, five coffins inscribed with the words “French soldiers in Ukraine” were left under the Eiffel Tower; in Estonia, the car windows of the interior minister and a local journalist were smashed. There have been numerous suspicious fires in Poland, including one that destroyed a huge shopping centre in Warsaw.
Taken together, the incidents point to how Russia’s intelligence services have moved towards a new kind of attack on the west, one that is dangerous and violent but also piecemeal and hard to prove.
What would be the goal of such attacks?
Same as the hamas attack they encouraged: chaos and fear to help distract and intimidate support from Ukraine.
I guess that could be seen as small scale terrorism, a “message” in case the countries decide to further aid Ukraine. For Lithuania and the other baltic countries, the threat is significantly larger than at countries that don’t share a border with Russia.
Right, the border is key here, I didn’t think of that.