Poland sees third major fire in a week, as authorities suspect Russian-linked sabotage amid rising hybrid threats.

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A third major fire in less than a week broke out in Poland on Monday, prompting the authorities to suspect that the incidents may be linked to hybrid operations by Russian intelligence services.

The latest fire broke out in a warehouse in Siemianowice Ślaskie in southern Poland. This follows a fire in a residential building in Ząbki, near Warsaw, on 1 July, and a fire in a production hall in Mińsk Mazowiecki, around 35 km from the capital, on Sunday.

Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said on Monay that in light of Russia’s hybrid tactics, the government is treating all major fires with increased scrutiny.

“Since January 2024, we have seen several attempted acts of sabotage. Every significant incident, fire, or attempted arson is being assessed as a potential act of sabotage,” he said during a press conference.

The suspicion of Russian involvement intensified after a massive shopping center in Marywilska, Warsaw, burned down in May. The government later said it had evidence linking Russian intelligence to the incident. In response, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski ordered the closure of Russia’s consulate in Kraków.

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  • huppakee@feddit.nlEnglish
    111·
    1 day ago

    An article was posted in this community 3 days ago titled The Wild Russian Plot to Burn a London Restaurant and Kidnap Its Owner by the New York Times about how “a criminal gang in Britain was directed to target Yevgeny Chichvarkin, a dissident Russian who owns Hide, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Mayfair”. This is what I commented on that post:

    Just 2 days ago there were two articles posted in this community. One called Russian propaganda group Storm-1516 is using identities of real journalists to target Moldova, Armenia, and France and the other by AP news titled Intelligence officials worry a sabotage campaign blamed on Russia is growing more dangerous which was about a fire at a warehouse in east London storing equipment for Ukraine, plotted by Russian linked to the secret service. They wrote the following: “The fire is one of more than 70 incidents linked to Russia that The Associated Press has documented since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022”. I earlier wrote comments on posts some of those ‘incidents’, this is what I commented below the two posted articles i linked above:

    3 days ago someone posted a link to an article by The Insider titled Polish researchers trace Baltic GPS disruptions to Russian military sites in Kaliningrad about finding the source of navigational system failures (by either spoofing or jamming coordinates) on thousands of aircraft and ships in the baltic sea and the airspace of the surrounding countries. This is what I commented on that post:

    Yesterday someone posted a link to an article by france24 titled The church by the airport: Inside Russia’s suspected spy activities in Sweden on how Russia is suspected to use the Moscow Patriarchate church as a platform for espionage. Recently I commented on a few posts about Kremlin-related activities in Europe. Below is a copy of what I commented the last time:

    Yesterday someone posted a link to an article on news.err.ee titled Arson attack on Ukrainian restaurant in Estonia ordered by Russian intelligence, I decided it would make sense to copy my comment on that article here.

    5 days ago someone posted link to an article by united24media titled Russian Saboteurs Reportedly Torch German Military Trucks in Erfurt in Brazen Attack on NATO Soil. I thought it’d be nice to copy my comment on that post.

    Yesterday someone posted a link to an article in The Sun, it’s headline was Britain’s migrant crisis being fuelled by Putin’s Russia and other hostile states in secret plot to destabilise UK; I feel I might just as well copy and paste my comment to that post:

    The amount of shit Russia pulls without getting any kind repercussion truly astonishes me.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      7 hours ago

      target Yevgeny Chichvarkin, a dissident Russian who owns Hide, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Mayfair

      So funny, such a “dissident” to reach there in Yeltsin and Putin years.

      • huppakee@feddit.nlEnglish
        1·
        5 hours ago

        I’m not sure i get what you mean, why put dissident between quotation marks? Do you doubt he is?

        He was a member of the Right Cause political party and was expected to become chairman of its Moscow section. Chichvarkin currently lives in London, from where he has campaigned against corruption in Russia and president Vladimir Putin personally.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evgeny_Chichvarkin

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          4 hours ago

          He’s a Russian businessman who became one in the last 35 years. He’s “dissident” in the sense that he picked the wrong side.

          Khodorkovsky’s close associate has been named by French, I think, police as the main suspect for ordering an attack on a Russian opposition figure recently.

          Look up Navalny’s organization’s opinions of all those people. Navalny was a controversial figure for many intents and purposes, and I really hope he didn’t return to Russia because of getting desperate and tired of idiots like me mentioning those controversies. His organization might not parrot the western narratives the way Khodor and others do, but it is genuine.