Disinformation, sabotage, electronic interference: NATO says it is “deeply” concerned by Russia’s “recent malicious activities” in Europe. The Alliance promises to respond to these actions.
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While Russian attacks in Ukraine are increasing, NATO is also concerned about the increase in malicious acts attributed to Russia on European soil.
In a press release published this Thursday, the allies say “deeply concerned about recent malicious activities on Allied territory, including those which have resulted in investigations and indictments against several individuals in connection with hostile state activities affecting Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic.
And NATO denounces “an increasingly intense campaign of activities that Russia continues to carry out in the Euro-Atlantic area, including on Alliance territory and through proxies.”
The Atlantic Alliance refers to operations of “disinformation”, “sabotage”, acts of violence” and “cyber and electronic interference” without detailing all of these attacks.
The NATO press release recalls that the allies remain united and determined in the face of the Russian threat and say they are “ready to defend themselves” and to deter Moscow against these “hybrid actions or attacks”.
This statement comes after recent press revelations that Russia is behind large-scale intermittent jamming of the GPS satellite geolocation signal in the Baltic Sea area. The Baltic countries, Finland and Sweden have sounded the alarm for the safety of commercial flights.
So much so that on Monday 29,The Finnish airline Finnair announced the cessation of its flights for a month between Helsinki and the Estonian airport of Tartu, located 50 kilometers from the Russian border. Other companies have also reported disruptions when their planes operate in the region.
Even if aeronautics experts affirm that the risks are a priori limited: jamming the GPS would not prevent planes from flying, the latter also having other means of finding their way.
However, the situation worries the authorities of Russia’s neighboring countries. _”_Such actions constitute (…) a threat to our population and our security, and we will not tolerate them”declared Margus Tsahkna, the Estonian foreign minister, to the British daily Financial Times.
For his Lithuanian counterpart, Gabrielius Landsbergis, “the situation in the Baltic region, near the Russian borders, has become too dangerous to ignore.”
In its statement, the Atlantic Alliance calls on Russia “to respect its international obligations, as the Allies do. And to remember that “Russia’s actions will not deter Allies from continuing to support Ukraine.”
