Intelligence shows Russia is plotting sabotage across Europe – FT
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The Financial Times reports that according to a number European intelligence agencies warned their governments that Russia is plotting what it calls “violent acts of sabotage” across the continent as it commits to a course of permanent conflict with the west.
According to the report Russia has already begun to more actively prepare covert bombings, arson attacks and damage to infrastructure on European soil, directly and via proxies, with little apparent concern about causing civilian fatalities.
“We assess the risk of state-controlled acts of sabotage to be significantly increased,” said Thomas Haldenwang, head of German domestic intelligence. Russia now seems comfortable carrying out operations on European soil “[with] a high potential for damage,” he told a security conference last month hosted by his agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
One senior European government official said information was being shared through Nato security services of “clear and convincing Russian mischief”, which was co-ordinated and at scale. The time had come to “raise awareness and focus” about the threat of Russian violence on European soil, he added.
