(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Russian Sabotage [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-11-21 The fingers are pointing at Russia for two internet cables, 65 miles apart, being cut within 24 hours of each other. One connected Finland to Germany, and the other between Sweden and Lithuania. Sabotage. From the French word saboter, or sabot. Sabots were wooden shoes that unhappy workers threw into machinery to gum up the works. Gas from Nord Stream pipeline bubbling to the surface. This isn't the first time Russia has been fingered for undersea damage. In Sept. 2022, the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines were cut by explosions. The pipelines ran from Russia to Germany. This was 7 months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But it made little sense that Russia would cut off a source of revenue. Each of the two pipelines is actually composed of two pipelines, a total of four. One of the Nord Stream 2 pipelines was undamaged. Dimitri Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, called the accusation that Russia was behind the pipeline explosions, "predictably stupid and absurd." He blamed the United States because we would make huge profits selling gas to Europe. Deflect and confuse. That's what the Russians always do. The internet undersea cables being cut had no effect on Russia like the gas pipelines did. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said, "Nobody believes that these cables were accidentally severed." The timing is suspect. It happened right after the United States told Ukraine that they could use US long range missiles to hit the Kursk region in Russia. The air freight industry is on high alert because of suspected Russian sabotage. There have been unusual fires at DHL warehouses. There has been blatant Russian recruiting for saboteurs on Telegram. An Estonian undercover operative contacted several pro-Kremlin social media feeds looking for European nationals to conduct sabotage within their own borders. "You probably already seen what happened in Romania," one advertisement said posting clips of several Industrial fires. He chatted online in Russian with a anonymous recruiter who promised payments of $10,000 in cryptocurrency for a range of acts like spying on military bases, setting fires to vehicles and even murder. European officials have said that recruiting and incidents have skyrocketed since the beginning of this year. Crimes include break-ins and arson at factories and sensitive infrastructure, physical attacks, and even the attempted murder of the CEO of Germany's largest arms company. When NATO foreign ministers met in April, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said almost every member had reported acts of sabotage or disruption. These increases have gone hand in hand with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The idea is to make European populations feel vulnerable and unsafe. Possibly in preparation for a wider conflict than Ukraine. The chief of Britain's MI5 intelligence service said that the Russian military intelligence service GRU had carried out acts of sabotage, arson, and other activities conducted with increasing recklessness. Often they were operating through underworld criminal gangs. We know that Russia has used cyber attacks and information warfare for a decade. They use a network of bots to disseminate misinformation. The level of physical attacks on NATO members has increased dramatically. There has been series of break-ins at water treatment plants in Finland that seems to have expanded to Sweden. After someone gained access to a reservoir and a pumping station, Swedish media reported residents in a Western District were asked to boil their water. A similar event occurred in Germany in August, again saying to boil water. There have been booby trapped parcels that have started fires in DHL facilities in Germany. The same happened to a DHL facility in United Kingdom. Targets have been an IKEA store in Lithuania and Latvia's Occupation Museum which details the Soviet Union's previous control of the country and more. Unidentified drones overflew a German nuclear power plant and briefly forced a shut down of the airport in Stockholm. Multiple countries have arrested suspected Russian sponsored actors for sabotage and other offenses, many not described in detail, for obvious reasons. Earlier in the month a British newspaper reported that Russian hackers using ransomware had attacked an ambulance service penetrating their communications. The question is whether the cut internet cables is just the start of a new campaign to cut off communications in Europe to disrupt any help for Ukraine. Already Ukraine's internet capability has been almost destroyed, making them highly dependent on Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service. The reports of Musk talking to Putin makes this all the more frightening. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/21/2287663/-Russian-Sabotage?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/