Sunday 26th of January 2025

DW is unable to see the origin of hybrid warfare....

In the span of one week, a cargo plane belonging to German logistics company DHL crashed in Lithuania, two underwater data cables were damaged in the Baltic Sea, and pro-Russian right-wing extremist Calin Georgescu surprisingly won the first round of Romania's presidential election.

 What is hybrid warfare? Thomas Latschan 

Western intelligence agencies accuse Russia of increasingly engaging in hybrid warfare since invading Ukraine. What exactly constitutes hybrid warfare, and what's its intended goal?

Several Western politicians and intelligence agencies suspect that Russia was the driving force behind all three incidents, although nothing has been proven and no evidence backing the suspicions has so far been made public. While Kremlin-orchestrated hybrid warfare has always posed a danger, experts now warn that this danger has grown dramatically since Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Hybrid warfare means broadening military operations to include espionage, sabotage and cyberattacks, as well as engaging in election interference, propaganda or disinformation campaigns to weaken and destabilize the enemy from within. Experts say Russia has continuously expanded its hybrid warfare arsenal in recent years.

Espionage

European countries have expelled around 500 Russian diplomats since early 2022. Britain's MI5 secret service said at least 400 of them are spies. Many Russian embassies and consulates are reported to be equipped with state-of-the-art communications and espionage technology. If any of this can be definitively proven, Western intelligence agencies have chosen not to make public the information they may have gathered. After all, the embassy and consulate buildings are considered Russian territory and cannot be entered by host states without Russian permission.

The Dutch secret service has warned that Russia is equipping its spies with false papers and smuggling them into Western institutions disguised as businesspeople.

Reports of suspected Russian espionage emerge regularly. Some drew attention to ahacked conversation between German army officials discussing the country's Taurus missile system. Others have dealt with suspected Russian drones spying on European air bases and industrial zones. Some reports have also focused on suspected spy ships, officially classed as research vessels, cruising the seas of northern Europe and mapping critical seabed infrastructure for possible acts of sabotage.

 

Sabotage

Last week, a Russian-captained Chinese freighter reportedly damaged two undersea cables by dragging an anchor over the seabed. The incident is similar to one that occurred in October 2023. Last month, a London warehouse used for storing aid for Ukraine was hit by an arson attack. In July, a parcel that should have been sent by air freight went up in flames at a DHL logistics center in Leipzig, Germany. It is thought Russian sabotage could have been at play in these and numerous other cases. Yet nothing has been proven so far.

European intelligence services warn that the number of acts of sabotage and arson have increased dramatically over the past year in the EU and UK.

Cyberattacks

Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) warns that the risk of malicious cyberspace activity is "higher than ever." Online espionage and sabotage are ever-present. "Before Russia's attack on Ukraine, Russian-linked groups were very active in Germany engaging in cyberespionage and financially motivated ransomware attacks," the BSI said. "The scope of threats has expanded since Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine."

The agency said "the number of DDoS attacks by pro-Russian hacktivists" has risen sharply. DDoS attacks involve flooding websites or servers with traffic until they crash due to overload. Hacks aimed at penetrating company and institutional networks are also on the rise.

 

Disinformation and propaganda

Another objective of hybrid warfare is trying to influence public opinion in a given target country. Falsehoods and pro-Russian or anti-Ukrainian narratives are disseminated to this end, whether on social media platforms through troll factories, or via Russian foreign media outlets.

In early 2024, Germany's Foreign Ministry uncovered a Russian "Doppelganger" disinformation campaign. It involved 50,000 fake social media user accounts spreading falsehoods and pro-Russian opinions on social networks while linking to fake news outlets spreading Russian propaganda. Some of the sites appeared deceptively similar to well-known news sites.

 Election interference, meddling in the political process

One of the aims of these disinformation campaigns is to undermine public support for Ukraine. Another objective consists of politically destabilizing a democratic target country by strengthening extreme parties and candidates, for example by providing financial support to them.

GUSNOTE: THIS IS GROSS... THE WEST IS INTERFERING WITH GEORGIA — STALIN BIRTH COUNTRY — AT THE MOMENT:

 

In April, the Czech secret service uncovered a propaganda website called Voice of Europe, believed to be financed by Moscow. The site is suspected of paying bribes to some members of European Parliament.

One of the individualssuspected of having received such payments is Petr Bystron, an MEP with the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. He has denied the accusations.

GUSNOTE: THIS IS ALSO GROSS... THE VOICE OF AMERICA IN EUROPE IS FINANCED BY THE CIA....

Western intelligence agencies also accused Russia of directly or indirectly influencing dozens of elections across Europe, North America and South America. Russian international broadcaster RT is said to have produced videos on controversial topics such as aid for Ukraine, migration and the economy during the US presidential election campaign. Right-wing US bloggers then spread some of the videos.

Hack-and-leak attacks are also part of the hybrid warfare repertoire. They involve hacking politicians, political parties or other institutions to steal and publish confidential information, sometimes alongside falsified documents, before elections. This happened, for example, in the run-up to the 2016 US election and the 2017 French presidential election.

GUSNOTE: AS WE HAVE EXPOSED THIS MANY TIMES, THE US ELECTIONS ARE NOT INFLUENCED BY RUSSIA BUT MOSTLY BY SOROS AND MURDOCH MEDIA.

 Targeted killings

Assassinating influential figures is another facet of hybrid warfare. Russian President Vladimir Putin has not shied away from attacking individuals abroad. This is clear from the killing of a Chechen ex-commander in Berlin's Tiergarten park, who allegedly fought against Russia during the Second Chechen War. This is also evident from the 2006 attack on Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko and the assassination attempt against Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in 2018. All were carried out on British soil.

It's mainly Russian citizens who have fallen victim to such attacks so far. In July 2024, however, news leaked that Russia was planning to assassinate Armin Papperger, CEO of the German armaments group Rheinmetall, which manufactures the Leopard II tanks and other munitions supplied to Ukraine. The Kremlin has denied all the accusations.

GUSNOTE: THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT IS THAT YULIA SKRIPAL BLAMED THE BRITISH FOR THE CAPER... SO WHY WOULD THE BRITS DO THIS? TWO FOLD: A) THE SKRIPALS COULD HAVE BEEN "DOUBLE AGENTS" AND B) BLAMING RUSSIA IS POPULAR....

 How to deal with hybrid warfare?

Russia is conducting many different hybrid warfare pinpricks across Europe, according to Sönke Marahrens, a German army officer and hybrid security expert.

"Russian operators are trying out different things in many European states, which are individually tailored to the respective state," Marahrens told German public news outlet tagesschau.de. "Hybrid measures that work in Poland don't work in Germany; what works in Germany wouldn't work in Finland."

That is why, he said, one must expect "a very broad spectrum of attacks in the future." Likewise, one should show flexibility in reacting to such attacks, he added.

This article was translated from German

THERE IS MORE HYBRID WARFARE COMING FROM THE WEST THAN FROM RUSSIA. GET THIS INTO YOUR HEAD.... INCLUDING THE 'unprovoked" LIES BEING CONSTANTLY PEDDLED BY THE USA...

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

PLEASE DO NOT BLAME RUSSIA IF WW3 STARTS. BLAME YOURSELF.

 

sabotage....

WARSAW (Sputnik) - The Polish operator of the Druzhba oil pipeline, PERN, does not rule out any causes for the pipeline's damage, including sabotage, a company spokesperson told Sputnik.

Earlier, the State Fire Service of the republic reported a leak from the Druzhba oil pipeline in the Pniewo district of the Greater Poland Voivodeship. There is no threat of fire or explosion due to the incident. The operator has shut down one of the pumping stations.

"At present, experts are working on restoring the oil flow, addressing the consequences of the leak, and investigating the causes of the incident," the spokesperson said.

Until an expert opinion is received, "none of the versions, including intentional damage to the pipeline or a purely technical cause for the incident, are being ruled out," he added.

The western section of the Druzhba oil pipeline connects the raw material base in Mishevka Strzalkowski near Płock with the oil refinery in Schwedt, Germany.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20241202/druzhba-pipeline-damaged-polands-operator-not-ruling-out-any-causes-including-sabotage-1121065227.html

 

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

no sabotage....

A fiber-optic cable linking Sweden and Finland has reportedly been damaged in two separate locations. Finnish police said on Tuesday that “there is no reason to suspect any criminal activity”in connection with the incident.

Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin had suggested earlier in the day that the incident could be a deliberate act, citing the circumstances surrounding the damage.

However, Finnish telecom company Elisa later confirmed that at least one of the breaches was caused by construction work.

Reports emerged on Tuesday of the two cuts, both of which occurred on Finnish soil. The severing of the cable, which connects the Nordic countries, disrupted internet services for thousands of households and businesses in southern Finland.

Global Connect, the line operator, reported that approximately 6,000 households and 100 businesses were affected by the disruption. One of the breaches was repaired overnight, while work on the second was still ongoing.

Swedish media, including SVT and Aftonbladet, initially claimed that Finnish police were investigating the damage as a potential criminal act. However, Finnish authorities later clarified that there was no ongoing investigation into the incident.

“Contrary to media reports, the Finnish police have no ongoing criminal investigation into the damage to the fiber optic cable between Finland and Sweden,” a spokesperson stated.

Despite this, Bohlin maintained that sabotage could be involved, saying, “due to the circumstances surrounding what happened, sabotage is suspected.”

Jaakko Wallenius, safety director at Elisa, confirmed to Helsingin Sanomat that one of the ruptures had been caused by an excavator during construction work. The incident, he said, was reported promptly and was considered a “very ordinary accident.”

Niklas Ekstrom, communications manager at Global Connect, also attributed one of the breaks to construction activities, while the cause of the second breach remains under investigation.

This incident is part of a series of similar disruptions over the past year, with some incidents in the region raising suspicions of sabotage. In October, two undersea cables linking Finland, Germany, and Lithuania were damaged in the Baltic Sea, prompting German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to suggest the possibility of deliberate sabotage.

https://www.rt.com/news/608627-sweden-finland-internet-cable-incident/

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

meanwhile....

Covid-19 most likely emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, the US Congressional Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic has concluded in a 520-page report, following a two-year investigation.

It discovered that the virus possessed a biological characteristic absent in nature, and data indicated that all Covid-19 cases stemmed from a single introduction to humans, reinforcing the ‘lab leak’ theory.

The report claims that the Chinese government, agencies within the US government, and some members of the international scientific community “sought to cover up facts concerning the origins of the pandemic.”

First detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, the coronavirus spread far beyond the country’s borders, killing over 7 million people across the world.

According to the report, China’s leading research laboratory for coronaviruses in Wuhan “has a history of conducting gain-of-function research at inadequate biosafety levels.” The document claims that researchers at the lab “were sick with a COVID-like virus in the fall of 2019, months before COVID-19 was discovered at the wet market.” “By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced,” it went on to say.

At the outset of the pandemic, theories suggested that the virus emerged at a Chinese ‘wet market’. These traditional markets are known for often selling meat, fish, produce, and exotic animals in unsanitary conditions.

In 2020, however, then-President Donald Trump claimed without providing evidence that the virus originated from a Chinese lab. Beijing said the claim was a reelection tactic aimed at boosting Trump’s standing among Republican voters.

In a war of words, then-Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian promoted an unfounded conspiracy theory that the virus might have been brought to China by the US military.

In 2021, Trump said that China should pay reparations for its role in the Covid-19 pandemic, arguing that if the damage worldwide was properly estimated, it would likely owe upwards of $60 trillion.

That same year, Dr. Anthony Fauci – the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden at the time who faced intense criticism for his handling of the pandemic – said the implication that lab research led to the Covid-19 pandemic is “unconscionable” and “molecularly impossible.”

The report by the Select Committee also blasted the response of officials, saying, “members and staff have exposed high-level corruption in America’s public health system, confirmed the most likely origin of the pandemic, held COVID-19 bad actors publicly accountable, fostered bipartisan consensus on consequential pandemic-era issues.”

https://www.rt.com/news/608612-covid-emerged-from-chinese-laboratory/

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.