Sir Richard Moore and Bill Burns did not list examples but there has been a spate of mysterious sabotage and arson attacks on infrastructure in the UK, Germany and in the Baltics.
Russia is waging a “reckless campaign of sabotage” across Europe, the heads of MI6 and the CIA have warned in their first-ever joint remarks.
Sir Richard Moore and Bill Burns also said the UK and the US faced an “unprecedented array of threats”, and said the entire world order was under the most serious strain since the Cold War.
In a newspaper article, the spymasters pointed to Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, while also describing China as “the principal intelligence and geopolitical challenge of the 21st century”.
In the meantime, the most damaging act of sabotage that we know of on European ground was perpetrated (it seems) by Ukrainians. Many were pointing the finger in Russia’s direction when that happened, even if it didn’t make much sense. Just saying, we shouldn’t take spooks at their word, you never quite know who is really behind covert attacks on infrastructure. At best we, the general public, can speculate. It usually takes a hell of a long time for any serious investigation to take place, if that is even going to be conclusive.
Sabotage against an enemy in war is a long-held tradition, and can be a very effective tactic if it causes economic (or other) damage to their enemy. It will still cost less than rebuilding entire cities, but I guess that doesn’t matter as much since it wasn’t (scary hand gestures) sabotage.
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Ukraine did in one day what decades of Greenpeace fucking around couldn’t accomplish