Russia poses a direct threat to the European Union through acts of sabotage and cyberattacks, but its massive military spending suggests that President Vladimir Putin also plans to use his armed forces elsewhere in the future, the EU’s top diplomat warned on Wednesday.
“Russia is already a direct threat to the European Union,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. She listed a series of Russian airspace violations, provocative military exercises, and attacks on energy grids, pipelines and undersea cables.
Kallas noted that Russia is already spending more on defense than the EU’s 27 nations combined, and this year will invest more “on defense than its own health care, education and social policy combined.”
[…]
The acts of sabotage and cyberattacks are mostly aimed at undermining European support for Ukraine, military officers and experts have said.
But concern is mounting in Europe that Russia could try to test NATO’s Article 5 security guarantee — the pledge that an attack on any one of the allies would be met with a collective response from all 32.
In 2021, NATO allies acknowledged that significant and cumulative cyberattacks might, in certain circumstances, also be considered an armed attack that could lead them to invoke Article 5, but so far no action has been taken.
[…]
Meanwhile, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said that Nato members will discuss new operational concepts to respond immediately to a Russian military attack - including counterstrikes inside Russia - at the Nato summit later this month.
“The new concept is that if Russia is coming, then we will bring the war to Russia. That’s what we are talking about,” Tsahkna said. “We have no time then to discuss whether we can use one of the other weapons or whatever. We have no time. We need to act within the first minutes and hours.”
[…]
So… cold war 2? Hybrid war? What should we call this?
I don’t think the first cold war ever ended.
Kallas noted that **Russia is already spending more on defense than the EU’s 27 nations combined, and this year will invest more “on defense than its own health care, education and social policy combined.”**
Two things. Why is she always referred to so indirectly? She’s a pretty bad ass women who is one of the few with that level of integrity on that level in Europe. When she falls out of a one story window you’ll know the Russians are coming.
The excessive defense spending both by RU but also US is mirroring the last years of the Roman (and probably other empires). It’s a good thing. The giants of the 20th century are self imploding as there was no way to defeat them anyway. The world now needs smart and compassionate people to figure out what we do once they’re gone.
“…attacks on energy grids, pipelines and undersea cables”…???
There is undisputed evidence that Russia is waging a war hybrid war against Europe. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the U.S., for example, the number of Russian attacks nearly tripled between 2023 and 2024. Russia’s primary targets have included transportation, government, critical infrastructure, and industry, and its main weapons and tactics have included explosives, blunt or edged instruments (such as anchors), and electronic attack.
There is also a comprehensive report by the Investigative Journalism Network looking into close to 80 incidents that took place since the start of 2024 in Europe and that were publicly linked to Russian-affiliated actors by authorities or news reports.
The latter report also includes a map, and both reports unlikely provide a full picture of Russia’s adversarial actions. You’ll find more across the web.
