1y ago

Europe on high alert after suspected Moscow-linked arson and sabotage

www.theguardian.com

Security services say spate of fires and infrastructure attacks could be part of systemic attempt by Russia to destabilise continent

Security services around Europe are on alert to a potential new weapon of Russia’s war – arson and sabotage – after a spate of mystery fires and attacks on infrastructure in the Baltics, Germany and the UK.

When a fire broke out in Ikea in Vilnius in Lithuania this month, few passed any remarks until the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, suggested it could have been the work of a foreign saboteur.

29 comments

Imagine being sat at the really long table with Putin, saying how the mission to burn down an IKEA in Lithuania was a great success.
- Which is a pretty counterintuitive russian tactic, ~~Bruce~~ like what better option for building long tables would there be than cheap Swedish modular furniture systems?
  
  Yeah, Bruce, what the hell?!
I believe this is covered in chapter three of Vladimir Putin's "How to make friends in the modern world."
“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak”
Burning down an IKEA is a pretty desperate move. They also don’t seem to realise that regardless of whether Europe supports Ukraine or not, Ukraine will never surrender. As long as a Ukrainian breaths, there will be resistance to Russia.
- Maybe, it also has symbolic value, and might demoralise the civilian populace, whose support is crucial to the continued state support.
  It still seems a weak move as infrastructure should be a more effective target, but who knows how many layers of distractions and attacks of opportunity really happen in the field?
  
  Destroying a historic monument or building to demoralise would make more sense. Instead, we have the Russian War on Low Prices.
So a British kid got paid by the Russians to burn down a Ukrainian businessmans warehouse? That's pretty dumb, and kinda scary. Is this going to be the start of freelance darkweb mercenaries paid by belligerent states to sabotage their home country? I hope not because the added security they'd bring in to try and stop it would make life much harder for all of us.
New weapon? Already forgot the arson at Czech (I think) munition depot a couple of years back?
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Security services around Europe are on alert to a potential new weapon of Russia’s war – arson and sabotage – after a spate of mystery fires and attacks on infrastructure in the Baltics, Germany and the UK.
Investigators have already alleged potential Russian involvement in an arson attack in east London, an inferno that destroyed the largest shopping mall in Poland, a sabotage attempt in Bavaria in Germany and antisemitic graffiti in Paris.
They point out that after the cold war, foreign intelligence operations consisted of spies and their handlers, but in the era of social media, vandals can be hired, leaving few connections to other attackers as pay-as-you-go saboteurs paid a few hundred euros or in cryptocurrency.
Such is the emerging concern that these hybrid attacks could be the work of Russia that the issue was raised at a summit of foreign and defence ministers in Brussels this week with Dutch, Estonian and Lithuanian security officials all warning of national vulnerabilities.
A spokesperson for Ikea said investigations were continuing into the source of the fire in Lithuania but it was among the examples, along with an attempted arson attack on a paint factory in Poland, that Tusk cited in his warning of potential foreign interference.
In April, a British man was accused of orchestrating an arson attack on two units linked to a Ukrainian businessman in an industrial estate in Leyton, east London, after allegedly being recruited by Russian intelligence.
The original article contains 970 words, the summary contains 241 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
The Guardian – Bias and Credibility
Bias Rating: Left-Center
Factual Reporting: Mixed
Country: United Kingdom
Press Freedom Rating: Mostly Free
Media Type: Newspaper
Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: Medium Credibility
MediaBiasFactCheck.com: About + Methodology
Ad Fontes Media Rating: Left / Reliable
Article By: Lisa O’Carroll
- Wow, I definitely didn't expect that "Factual Reporting" would be "Mixed", however going through the list, it shows several instances where they misunderstood either a scientific paper or misrepresented some fact.
  That said, I had before in some cases seen articles about AI being either false, misunderstanding the facts, or just parroting some CEO. I attributed it to AI being something relatively "new" to mainstream media, but this is pretty much eye opening.
  I like their "long read" articles though, but I guess it's time to find a new main everyday paper for me...
  
  Uh, other journalists have called it The Gruniard for years because it has so many mistakes 😂
  
  I think this bit sums up the reason for the rating pretty well. Not sure if I completely agree, but it makes sense to me.
  The Guardian has failed several fact checks, they also produce an incredible amount of content; therefore, most stories are accurate, but the reader must beware, and hence why we assign them a Mixed rating for factual reporting.
  
  Reuters is the best paper out there, full stop.
- I personally don't trust the bias rating & fact checking websites. I've been reading through this particular one that you've posted about and I've already found several things that don't seem to add up. For example, with Fox News they point out everything that tmay have been wrong about, but with CNN & MSNBC, they don't really mention anything about what they've gotten wrong, and they've gotten plenty of things wrong. I'll just mention a couple, and that's calling the Hunter Biden laptop Russian disinformation and right-wing propaganda or saying that the Russian dossier on Trump had been verified.
  
  "Fact checkers" is just another layer of AstroTurf to legitimize fake news regime after 2016 us elections where substantial percent of population stopped drinking the kooliad.
The article states that there is no evidence that this is caused by Russia. But then goes on to speculate that it's caused by Russia. Journalistic standards have fallen.
So there is no evidence, just speculation. Nothing to see here then.
Also been suspicious fires throughout the United States. https://wltreport.com/2024/01/31/stunning-map-shows-all-food-processing-plants-that/
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2022/04/fbi-warns-of-cyberattacks-on-us-food-plants-after-a-dozen-hit-by-mysterious-fires/
- WLT Report is a pretty unreliable and far-right source.
  Fact check: False claim food plant fires are evidence of planned food shortages - USA Today
  Are Fires at Food Processing Plants a 'New Trend'? - Snopes
  Fires and accidents at food plants are common, not a conspiracy - Politifact
  Energy weapons, blue roofs and food supply attacks: Texas wildfires revive baseless claims - Politifact
It sucks that we live in a world where it's impossible to tell if this is real, complete nonsense, or a false flag operation.
- Always was.
I don't have much faith in the websites you're using either, especially the mediabiasfactcheck. Truth is, they don't know exactly what's been causing all the fires. You can look at the very long list and conclude whatever you want but the fires are happening whether it's a right-wing article or or not

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