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Mint
02-08-2025
- Politics
- Mint
US and Europe See Putin Reining In Russia's Unruly Hybrid War
US and European officials say they're seeing a decline in suspected Russian state-backed sabotage acts this year, evidence that President Vladimir Putin's security services may be reining in a hybrid warfare campaign that's been blamed for attacks across Europe. The drop-off in operations, which have involved Russian intelligence agents paying proxies to target civilian infrastructure and individuals, has been attributed to a range of factors, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive issues. A leading explanation is that Moscow may be tightening its grip on attacks entrusted to unreliable local criminals, some of which had got out of control and risked a major miscalculation, the people said. There were 11 suspected Russia-backed hybrid incidents in Europe between January and May this year, including the attempted sabotage of fiber-optic cables and cell towers in Sweden, a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank concluded. That compares to a record high of more than 30 in the whole of 2024, according to the IISS's dataset of attacks on energy, communications, transport, military, water and undersea targets. Western officials believe one factor may be that Putin wanted to avoid further antagonizing Donald Trump in the early months of his second term as the US president sought to reach a rapid peace deal in Ukraine. Other possible reasons include potential recruits being deterred from involvement by high-profile trials of saboteurs caught by law enforcement, forcing Moscow to adapt its tactics, and Russia's GRU military intelligence service redirecting resources to Ukraine in recent months, they said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov didn't respond to a request to comment. He has previously dismissed reports that Russia carries out sabotage in Europe as 'unfounded accusations.' US officials at the White House and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence didn't respond to requests for comment. Western officials say hybrid operations became a key part of Russia's playbook in the wake of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as the US and Europe sent Kyiv billions of dollars of weapons to defend itself. With much of Europe expelling Russian spies tied to its embassies in recent years, the people say that Moscow shifted to paying local proxies to carry out acts of violence, sabotage and arson in a campaign of disruption. The Russian campaign has been viewed as an effort to target western nations over their support of Ukraine. In contrast to his predecessor Joe Biden, Trump's military aid for Kyiv has been less reliable. The US recently agreed to continue sending weapons to Ukraine as long as European allies pay for them. The officials cautioned that the apparent waning of the campaign wasn't an indication that hybrid attacks had stopped completely or wouldn't escalate again in future. Sabotage plots remain higher in eastern European countries than in western nations, they said. The decline in incidents may have started in fall 2024 after high-level US officials reached out to their Russian counterparts to warn them against conducting future operations, people familiar with the conversations said, asking not to be identified because the issue is sensitive. The contacts took place amid American fears that Russia would put incendiary devices on cargo planes bound for the US, following a fire at a DHL facility in Britain in July 2024. Hybrid attacks are defined as hostile state-backed threats using both conventional and unconventional military methods, designed to destabilize opponents while blurring the threshold of a declared act of war. Three UK residents were convicted in July of carrying out a March 2024 Russia-backed arson attack on a London warehouse of a firm that supplied goods, including Starlink satellite equipment, to Ukraine. Ken McCallum, head of Britain's domestic security service MI5, said last year that Russia was on a mission to generate 'sustained mayhem on British and European streets.' In May, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused Russian intelligence services of orchestrating a 2024 arson attack that almost completely destroyed a shopping center in Warsaw. Other incidents attributed to Moscow include vandalism, the jamming of GPS signals and a foiled plot to assassinate the CEO of a German arms company. 'Russia is currently waging two wars,' Finnish President Alexander Stubb said last year. 'One is a kinetic, conventional war in Ukraine. The other is a hybrid war in Europe and the West with the aim of influencing the tone of public discourse or in some way shake our sense of security.' Russia may be struggling to maintain strict control over operations, with some cases of sabotage and arson going beyond the aims of those who commissioned them, some of the officials said. That may be due in part to the incompetence and unreliability of petty criminals hired to carry out the actions, they said. There's also evidence that some individuals, described as self-starters, have acted on their own initiative in hopes of impressing potential Russian paymasters, again risking erratic outcomes, the people said. In response, Russia has increasingly ordered local proxies to film themselves carrying out attacks to try to ensure plots unfold as planned, the people said. The diverting of Russian intelligence resources to Ukraine was revealing of the Kremlin's struggles to secure breakthroughs on the ground this year, despite Putin's public narrative that he's winning the war, the people said. It also suggested Russian resources are stretched. Changes to the law in countries like the UK have increased prison sentences for involvement in such incidents. That has raised the risk for potential recruits, who are often paid only a few hundred euros or pounds by Russian intelligence and have no diplomatic protection if they're caught. While plots have declined this year, European governments continue to record regular and serious cases of Russian cyber attacks and more traditional espionage attempts, some of the officials said. With assistance from Alberto Nardelli. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
JAMnews
25-07-2025
- Politics
- JAMnews
British Embassy: "Georgian Dream has distanced itself from Euro-Atlantic cooperation"
UK regrets Georgian Dream's actions The British Embassy in Georgia has published a statement on sanctions against 21 Russian military intelligence agents and four Russian organizations 'in response to Russia's hostile actions.' The statement also mentions a cyberattack carried out by Russian military intelligence against Georgia in 2019. The Embassy reaffirms its strong support for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity and expresses regret over the ruling Georgian Dream party's drift away from Euro-Atlantic cooperation. The text of the statement: 'In concert with the EU, NATO and a large coalition of states, the UK has called out Russia's irresponsible, destructive and destabilising hybrid activity targeting the UK, Ukraine, NATO allies and partners across the world. In response to Russia's persistent hostile activity, the UK has sanctioned 4 entities and 21 operatives of Russian military intelligence for irresponsible and destructive hybrid activity targeting the UK, Ukraine, and the wider world. This includes one of the units of the GRU – Russian military intelligence agency – which, in 2022, conducted online reconnaissance to help target missile strikes against Mariupol – including the strike that destroyed the Mariupol Theatre where hundreds of civilians, including children, were murdered. We have also sanctioned three leaders of Russia's 'Africa Initiative', a Foreign Information Manipulation and Influence (FIMI) outlet established and funded by Russia, employing Russian intelligence officers to conduct information operations in West Africa. Africa Initiative attempted to undermine lifesaving global health initiatives in the region by pushing baseless conspiracy theories to further the Kremlin's political agenda. The activity exposed is another demonstration of how hybrid activity – including through cyberspace and disinformation – are a tool in Russia's ongoing campaign to destabilise Europe, and in Russia's brutal and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. In October 2019, Georgia was also the subject of a damaging cyber-attack by the Russian military intelligence. In February 2020, the UK Government and its partners exposed these cyber-attacks against Georgia as part of Russia's long-running campaign of hostile and destabilising activity. We have been clear that the GRU conducted these cyber-attacks in an attempt to undermine Georgia's sovereignty, to sow discord and disrupt the lives of ordinary Georgian people. The UK remains unwavering in its support for Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The UK and Georgia worked together to build cyber resilience and to publicly attribute that attack, unfortunately Georgian Dream has moved away from Euro-Atlantic co-operation, but the threat from Russia remains, including in the cyber sphere.' News in Georgia
Extra.ie
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Extra.ie
How Guinness stars in one of the greatest spy stories of War
Guinness may be 'good for you', but it was also the code word used in Soviet spies' secret meetings in the last century. As two of Russia's best spies met undercover in London, one would say: 'Stout is not good… I prefer lager' to which their fellow agent would reply: 'I think Guinness is best.' One of the greatest spy stories, beginning before the Second World War, is told by historian Ben Macintyre – and Guinness played a vital role. Pic:Agent Sonya, his vivid depiction of Russian spy Ursula Kuczynski Burton, who conducted some of the most dangerous espionage operations of the 20th century, is a bestseller. Born to a German Jewish family, Kuczynski Burton–Sonya was a Communist activist who spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s and 1940s, most famously as the handler of nuclear scientist Klaus Fuchs. Kuczynski Burton planned an assassination attempt on Hitler in Switzerland, spied on the Japanese in Manchuria and prevented nuclear war (or so she believed) by stealing the science of atomic weaponry from Britain to give to Moscow. Pic: Dave Rushen/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) In London, Russian agent Alexander Feklisov would visit the Nag's Head pub while carrying a copy of the Tribune to meet Klaus Fuchs. Feklisov would bring over a beer to Fuchs and say: 'Stout is not good. I prefer lager.' To which Fuchs would reply: 'I think Guinness is best.' Every few months, Fuchs met Feklisov at various pubs drinking Guinness and lager, handing over a fresh trove of secret scientific intelligence: Britain's atomic bomb planning, the construction of experimental reactors, notes on plutonium production and precise calculations of the nuclear tests that would enable Soviet scientists to assess the Western nuclear stockpile. Macintyre's book tells how Fuchs returned from the US to take up a post as head of Theoretical Physics at the UK Atomic Energy Research Establishment, where scientists were designing a nuclear reactor to produce energy for civilian use. A second, secret agenda was the production of plutonium for making atomic weapons independently of the US. Fuchs was a pivotal member of the team. As a GRU (soviet military intelligence) officer, Kuczynski Burton was unaware of his return, for Fuchs was now a KGB asset. For a time, he eschewed spying, but after a year back in Britain, he received instructions to meet a KGB contact. An unidentified GRU chief is reported to have observed during the war, 'If we had five Sonyas in England, the war would end sooner'. Kuczynski Burton moved to East Germany in 1950 when Fuchs was unmasked, and published a series of books about her espionage activities, including her bestselling memoir, Sonja's Rapport. She died in 2000, aged 93
Chicago Tribune
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
The EU and UK hit Russia with new sanctions. Moscow's energy revenue and spies are targeted.
BRUSSELS — The European Union and Britain on Friday ramped up pressure on Russia over its war on Ukraine, targeting Moscow's energy sector, shadow fleet of aging oil tankers and military intelligence service with new sanctions. 'The message is clear: Europe will not back down in its support for Ukraine. The EU will keep raising the pressure until Russia ends its war,' EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said after the bloc agreed its new measures, including a new oil price cap. Kallas said it's 'one of its strongest sanctions packages against Russia to date' linked to the war, now in its fourth year. It comes as European countries start to buy U.S. weapons for Ukraine to help the country better defend itself. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the new measures, describing them as a 'timely and necessary' step amid intensified Russian attacks. 'All infrastructure of Russia's war must be blocked,' Zelenskyy said, adding that Ukraine will synchronize its sanctions with the EU and introduce its own additional measures soon. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov brushed off the EU move, saying that 'we consider such unilateral restrictions unlawful.' 'At the same time, we have acquired certain immunity from sanctions. We have adapted to living under sanctions,' Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. 'We will need to analyze the new package in order to minimize negative consequences from it.' The U.K., meanwhile, imposed sanctions on units of Russia's military intelligence service, GRU. Also added to the list were 18 officers the U.K. said helped to plan a bomb attack on a theatre in southern Ukraine in 2022 and to target the family of a former Russian spy who was later poisoned with a nerve agent. Hundreds of civilians sheltering in the theatre in Mariupol were killed in March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. 'GRU spies are running a campaign to destabilize Europe, undermine Ukraine's sovereignty and threaten the safety of British citizens,' U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said. NATO also condemned Russia's cyberattacks, saying in a statement that 'we will respond to these at a time and in a manner of our choosing, in accordance with international law, and in coordination with our international partners including the EU.' The European Commission, the EU's executive branch, had proposed to lower the oil price cap from $60 to $45, which is lower than the market price, to target Russia's vast energy revenues. The 27 member countries decided to set the price per barrel at just under $48. The EU had hoped to get major international powers in the Group of Seven countries involved in the price cap to broaden the impact, but the Trump administration could not be brought onboard. Oil income is the linchpin of Russia's economy, allowing President Vladimir Putin to pour money into the armed forces without worsening inflation for everyday people and avoiding a currency collapse. A new import ban was also imposed in an attempt to close a loophole allowing Russia to indirectly export crude oil via a number of non-EU countries. The EU also targeted the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany to prevent Putin from generating any revenue from them in future, notably by discouraging would-be investors. Russian energy giant Rosneft's refinery in India was hit as well. The pipelines were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany but are not in operation. On top of that, the new EU sanctions targeted Russia's banking sector, with the aim of limiting the Kremlin's ability to raise funds or carry out financial transactions. Two Chinese banks were added to the list. The EU has slapped several rounds of sanctions on Russia since Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine in February 24, 2022. More than 2,400 officials and 'entities' — often government agencies, banks, companies or organizations — have been hit with asset freezes and travel bans. But each round of sanctions is getting harder to agree, as measures targeting Russia bite the economies of the 27 member nations. Slovakia held up the latest package over concerns about proposals to stop Russian gas supplies, which it relies on. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he had spoken to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico 'almost daily' in recent days to convince him to change his mind. 'But it took a very long time again — the processes are too sluggish,' he told reporters in Berlin. The last raft of EU sanctions, imposed on May 20, targeted almost 200 ships in Russia's sanction-busting shadow fleet of tankers. On Friday, 105 more ships were blocked from European ports, locks and from ship-to-ship transfers, bringing the total number of vessels now sanctioned to more than 400.
Al Bawaba
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Putin's next target after Ukraine exposed by spy ring bust
Published July 19th, 2025 - 11:39 GMT ALBAWABA - A major British newspaper, The Telegraph, has warned that after the war in Ukraine ends, Russian President Vladimir Putin could turn his attention to the UK as his next main target. This comes after British intelligence agencies said they knew about Russian spy networks in the UK. The study says that the Kremlin wants to stop the UK's armed support for Ukraine, cause more disagreements within the UK, and carry out acts of mischief and hacking to make things more expensive for London on the home front. Recent events, like a warehouse fire in London and an arson attack on a DHL center in Birmingham, may have something to do with Russian military intelligence agents, the story says. The Telegraph makes it clear that Moscow's main tool for political fighting is spying and spreading false information. Recently, six Bulgarians were found guilty of spying for Russian intelligence in the UK and across Europe. This case brings to mind that case. The newspaper also talked about at least six proven or attempted murders that have happened in the UK since Vladimir Putin took office. These crimes are thought to have been planned by Russia's GRU. — The Telegraph (@Telegraph) July 19, 2025 The study says that Russia took advantage of the war in Gaza, which got worse in 2023, by using fake social media accounts to boost support for the Palestinians in the UK. It is said that the goal of this effort was to stir up public anger and change government choices. As threats from Russia and other unfriendly states have grown, British authorities have had to reorganize their intelligence resources. MI5 Director Ken McCallum has admitted that terrorist efforts have been slashed in order to focus on these new threats. The piece says that the UK needs to do more than just defend itself, even with these problems. The Telegraph says, "Defense alone is not enough—we must fight fire with fire," which means taking tougher steps against the Russian spy services that go beyond economic penalties. The report uses a comment from the UK Foreign Office to prove that Russia is still attacking but in secret. It suggests that Britain should change its policy to quietly counter Moscow's efforts to undermine the country. The paper sees this recognition as a good sign that people in Britain are starting to stand up to Russian invasion on their land. © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
