Accused by the EU of a series of cyber attacks conducted in recent weeks against some European countries, the Russia would also be preparing “violent acts of sabotage” across the continent. This is the alarm raised by some intelligence europee of which the Financial Timesaccording to which Moscow has already begun “to more actively prepare covert attacks, arson e damage to infrastructure on European territory, directly and through its members proxies, without worrying about causing casualties among civilians.” According to assessments from three different European countries shared with the British newspaper, although Kremlin agents have a long history of such operations – and have launched sporadic attacks in Europe in recent years – they are increasing “evidence of a more aggressive and concerted effort“.
A senior European government official said that through i NATO security services information was shared about “clear and convincing Russian malign actions”, coordinated and on a large scale. The time has come to “raise awareness and focus attention” on the threat of Russian violence on European territory, he added. “We believe that the risk of State-controlled acts of sabotage has increased significantly,” he said at a security conference last month Thomas Haldenwanghead of German domestic intelligence, according to which Russia now seems comfortable conducting operations on European soil “with a high potential for damage”.
Haldenwang had spoken a few days after two Russian-German citizens were arrested in Bayreuth, in Bavaria, on charges of plotting to attack military and logistics sites in Germany on behalf of Russia. At the end of April, the newspaper recalls, two men were accused in United Kingdom of having set a fire at a warehouse containing aid for Ukraine: English prosecutors accused them of working for the Russian government. And again, in Sweden the security services are investigating a series of recent railway derailments, which are suspected to be acts of sabotage, while according to what the Prague Transport Ministry told the newspaper, Russia was behind the attempt to destroy the signaling systems of railways of the Czech Republic.
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Two days ago the EU High Representative spoke on behalf of the 27 member countries with a statement. “The European Union and its Member States, together with international partners, strongly condemn the malicious cyber campaign conducted by APT28 group, controlled by Russia, against Germany and the Czech Republic. The cyber campaign demonstrates the continuing pattern of irresponsible behavior of Russia in cyberspace, targeting democratic institutions, government bodies and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond.”
“Today Germany publicly shared its assessment on the impairment by APT28 of different accounts of email of the executive of the Social Democratic Party of Germany; at the same time, the Czech Republic announced that its institutions were targets of this cyber campaign. State institutions, agencies and bodies in Member States, including Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Sweden, have already been targeted by the same actor,” the statement continued.
“In 2020, the EU imposed sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for the APT28 attacks that hit the German Federal Parliament in 2015. The EU will not tolerate this type of malicious behavior, especially activities that aim to degrade our critical infrastructure , to weaken social cohesion and influence democratic processes, ahead of this year’s elections in the EU and in more than 60 countries around the world: the EU is determined to use the full spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russia’s malicious behavior in cyberspace.” The US had also condemned Russia’s “malicious” cyberattack on Europe. “We join NATO and the EU in efforts to counter such activities and hold perpetrators accountable,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a post on X.
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