Putin attacks the West with sabotage and disinformation

The short version

• Russia uses methods such as sabotage, espionage, GPS jamming, disinformation and hacking against Norway and Western countries
• Tens of thousands of flights affected by Russian GPS interference in recent months
• Russia is accused of paying representatives in the EU Parliament to promote Russian propaganda
• Police Security Service (PST): Russia poses the biggest intelligence threat to Norway
• Putin seeks a different world order and uses hybrid warfare to achieve this goal

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Not with lethal weapons, as Ukraine is experiencing with continuous Russian bombing.

Against Norway and other Western countries, Vladimir Putin uses other methods, such as sabotage, espionage, GPS jammingDisturbance of GPS signals so that they do not work correctly. disinformation and hacking.

The cartoonist Morten Mørland is inspired by Atlas, who in Greek mythology carries the firmament on his head and with his hands.

Putin wants to shake up the world order.

To achieve that, he leads a hybrid war A conflict that combines conventional warfare with other methods such as cyber attacks and propaganda.against western countries, with a thousand small and large stings.

The systematic attacks are intended to undermine Western societies, weaken trust in democratic authorities and pit groups against others.

One example of this is the Russian interference of navigation signals, or GPS jamming.

Last week, two Finnair flights had to turn around and return to Finland. Electronic interference meant they could not navigate safely to their destination in Estonia.

Estonia is clear that Russia is behind it. Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna writes on X/Twitter that GPS interference in Estonian airspace, carried out by Russia, affects civil aviation in the region.

According to the Financial Times, tens of thousands of flights have been affected by GPS interference in recent months. At worst, it could cause a disaster in the air.

In the Czech Republic, Transport Minister Martin Kupka said earlier this spring that Russia has been behind several thousand attempts to disrupt train traffic and other critical infrastructure over the past two years. Among other things, attempts are said to have been made to hack the Czech railway’s signaling systems.

Another example is attempted sabotage against military targets.

In Bayreuth in southeastern Germany, police arrested two men accused of being agents for Russia in April. They are said to have planned to bomb industrial facilities or military bases to stop or delay Western arms deliveries to Ukraine.

The two have been identified by the prosecution as Dieter S (39) and Alexander J (37). They had both Russian and German citizenship and they are said to have been in contact with the Russian military intelligence service (GRU).

The evidence includes photos and maps of possible sabotage targets.

Russia runs extensive disinformation campaigns and hacking in Western countries. For a long time, they have produced fake news to influence public opinion in Western countries, particularly in connection with elections.

In late March, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said that Russia had paid representatives in the European Parliament to promote Russian propaganda. Belgium cooperated with the Czech Republic which exposed a pro-Russian propaganda network in Prague.

The Russian influence campaigns have become more advanced.

In the past, they spread shocking news that could easily be exposed as propaganda.

Now they are instead trying to feed discontent and internal conflicts in the individual countries. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), the Russians can create content that is adapted to a Western audience.

– They look for division, doubt and uncertainty and try to magnify this, says Ralf Beste to the Financial Times. He heads the department for culture and communication in the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It is more difficult than before to uncover who is behind it. False information spreads quickly and multiplies in social media.

Last year, German authorities revealed an extensive Russian influence campaign consisting of 50,000 fake accounts on X/Twitter. They published daily approx. 200,000 messages about how harmful and dangerous it was for Germany to support Ukraine.

Faktisk.no refers to a report from the French agency Vignium which has revealed that there is an extensive network of Russian websites that spread disinformation in a large number of languages.

Among these, there is also a Norwegian-language website with content that has apparently been automatically translated from Russian.

NATO this week expressed deep concern over the growing Russian activity in the alliance’s member states. This is perceived as part of Russia’s intensified fight against the West.

Russia usually dismisses the Western accusations as ridiculous and claims that they are only an expression of Russophobia, a neurotic fear of everything Russian.

Putin’s narrative is that the West is using Ukraine as a proxy in a fight against Russia. But it is Putin who has gone to war against a neighboring country and it is Russia who is breaking international treaties that should have ensured peace in Europe.

One third of the Russian state budget is spent on defense and security. A large part of the funds goes to the war in Ukraine, while at the same time internal security is strengthened to prevent internal unrest. In addition, the Kremlin spends large resources on campaigns to weaken Western support for Ukraine.

Putin has severed all ties with the West.

He will probably avoid doing anything that could trigger Article 5 of the NATO treaty, which states that an attack against a member state is to be considered an attack on all.

But Putin wants a different world order than the liberal model that was designed after the Second World War. And Putin has his methods to achieve this.

The Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) states in the security assessment for 2024 that Russia poses the greatest intelligence threat to Norway.

PST expects, among other things, that foreign states will use artificial intelligence (AI) in influence campaigns against Norway, or to find vulnerabilities in our computer programs.

In a deteriorating security policy situation, it is not only necessary to strengthen the military defence. Civil society must also become more resilient.

In order to achieve political goals, Putin shows that he is willing to use the means at his disposal, not only in war, but also in peace.

– The targets can also be influenced or attacked by various means even before a possible military conflict, including through political influence, information warfare, cyber operations, sabotage, infiltration, breaches of the energy supplyThe access and distribution of energy resources such as electricity and gas. and border violationsIllegal crossing or intrusion across a country’s border.says the Norwegian Intelligence Service’s report Focus 2024.

It is in this security policy landscape that we find ourselves.

We are not in a military conflict with Russia. But Putin puts us to the test every day.