NATO Members to Crack Down on Russian Spies
NATO members are set to take tougher action against Russian spies across the alliance in response to a campaign of hostile activities by Moscow that includes acts of sabotage and cyberattacks, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.
Poland, Germany, Britain and the Czech Republic reported incidents over the past weeks.
The German military reported the discovery of explosives attached to the NATO pipeline running through the country.
Stoltenberg said that the alliance had seen several examples of Russian sabotage, arson, cyberattacks and disinformation.
Ministers will discuss options for how to respond to this “Russian campaign of hostile activities against NATO allies,” he added, including the protection of critical maritime and cyber infrastructure, and “tighter restrictions on Russian intelligence personnel across the alliance.”
NATO also expelled what it called “undeclared Russian intelligence officers” who had been working at Moscow’s mission to the alliance in Brussels.
Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds accused Russia of waging a “hybrid war” against NATO.
“We deal with an aggressor country which has undermined the international rules-based order. Its activities don’t come as a surprise.”
Spruds told reporters Latvia was especially affected by Russian attacks due to its geographical proximity to Russia.
“Latvia, of course, is in the frontline and we have been facing hybrid attacks for some time, cyberattacks, the weaponization of illegal migration.”
Several incidents on NATO territory in recent years have been treated as suspicious by analysts, among them the severance of a vital undersea cable connecting Svalbard to mainland Norway in 2022.
In the same year, crucial cables in the network of German railway operator Deutsche Bahn were cut by unknown perpetrators, paralyzing train traffic in northern Germany.
