NATO Believes Russia Has Already Set Explosives on Europe’s Undersea Pipes, Cables: Report

NATO leaders believe it is “obvious” why Russia has been showing such interest in the undersea infrastructure of European nations and there is suspicion that cables and pipes may already have been “mined”, a report claims.

Russian forces have mined European critical infrastructure with explosives, NATO leaders allegedly believe according to an establishment media report citing military insiders and an ongoing major investigation into Russian maritime activity by a group of Nordic broadcasters.

As previously reported, Russian seagoing assets — which are often ostensibly civilian ships allegedly giving cover to their activities — have been observed obsessively sailing around critical infrastructure. Essential equipment for keeping the modern world going, including high voltage electrical transmission cables, gas and oil pipelines, and internet data cables all cross the seabed floor and are said to have been objects of interest for these ships.

Sabotage Plot Fears as Russian ‘Spy Ships’ Found Mapping Offshore Power Grids, Shadowing NATO Exercises https://t.co/99FXZL4HDQ

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 22, 2023

A report in The Times claims NATO leaders think these expeditions have gone beyond mere reconnaissance and may have mined this infrastructure to explode on command, an ace in the sleeve in case the West becomes more directly involved in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

An unnamed NATO officer cited in the report is claimed to have said: “Why is there this Russian focus on undersea offshore infrastructure? The answer is obvious… If Russia attacks one of our power plants on land, that is war. If the Russians can sabotage one of our undersea pipelines or cables then — look at Nord Stream, we still do not know who did that — they can attack deniably.”

On Nord Stream, it is today claimed by the group of broadcasters investigating Russian shipping that craft including one capable of launching and recovering submarines had been active in the Nordstream pipeline blast area in the days before the explosion last year which severed the oil pipeline.

The — again — unnamed NATO officer said of the risk other pipelines and infrastructure could be vulnerable to Russia: “There are strong suspicions that cables or pipelines have been mined… Somewhere in Moscow there are people sitting and thinking of the best ways they can to blow up our pipelines or cut our cables.

“Our job is to make that a costly and futile endeavour. At least, to make it undeniable, lessening the appeal because it is then an act of war.”