Secret Service Alerts: Russia Plans Violent Sabotage Across Europe

European intelligence agencies have warned their governments that Russia is planning violent acts of sabotage throughout the continent, informs the Financial Times.

Russia has already begun to more actively prepare covert bombings, incendiary bottle attacks and destruction of infrastructure on European soil, directly and through intermediaries, without much apparent concern for potential civilian casualties, intelligence officials believe.

Kremlin operatives have a long history of such operations – and have launched sporadic attacks in Europe in recent years – but evidence of more aggressive and effective action is now mounting. Intelligence officials are becoming increasingly vocal about this threat in an effort to promote vigilance.

“We estimate that the risk of acts of state-controlled sabotage has increased significantly,” said Thomas Haldenwang, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence service.

Russia now seems comfortable conducting operations on European soil “[with] a high potential for damage,” he said last month at a security conference hosted by his agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

Haldenwang spoke just days after two German-Russian nationals were arrested in Bayreuth, Bavaria, for allegedly plotting to attack military and logistics sites in Germany on behalf of Russia.

At the end of April, two men were accused in the UK of causing a fire at a warehouse containing aid packages for Ukraine. British prosecutors accuse them of working for the Russian government.

In Sweden, security services are meanwhile investigating a series of recent rail derailments, which they suspect may be acts of state-sponsored sabotage.

Russia tried to destroy the signaling systems of the Czech railways, the country’s transport minister told the FT last month.

In Estonia, an attack on the interior minister’s car in February and attacks on journalists in Esto were carried out by Russian intelligence agents, the country’s Internal Security Service said.

The French Defense Ministry also warned this year of possible Russian sabotage attacks on military sites.

“The obvious conclusion is that there has been a real intensification of Russian activity,” said Keir Giles, senior consultant at the Chatham House think tank.

“It cannot be said whether this reflects the fact that the Russians are investing more resources in this activity; if they are more negligent and are caught; or whether Western counterintelligence services have simply become better at detecting and stopping them. Be that as it may, however, many things are happening,” he added.

A senior European government official said that NATO security services are sharing information about “clear and convincing Russian malicious actions” that have been coordinated and on a large scale. The time has come to “increase awareness and focus” on the threat of Russian violence on European territory, he added.