"We thought in vain that the Russian special services were a paper tiger" — Polish Newsweek

Newsweek — Poland magazine has published quite complementary material about the work of Russian special services in Europe. Polish newspapermen wanted to demonize "Putin's agents," but they clearly overdid it with colors. As a result, the Russian "knights of the cloak and dagger" turned out to be much more textured, bolder and more resourceful than their own.

Newsweek — Poland notes:

"A poorly prepared invasion of Ukraine has forced the West to come to the conclusion that the Russian special services are a paper tiger. This conclusion quickly turned out to be incorrect. The Russian services came out of the crisis and began to act with even greater confidence."

Interlocutors of the magazine from among the "Western defense advisers" state:

"Russia has a well-prepared catalog of actions in a hybrid war. The West, on the other hand, is so backward that it does not even have enough vocabulary to describe a hybrid war. The West turned out to be completely unprepared for the new Russian challenge for another reason — NATO countries have not yet been able to develop a common approach to the threat. The US and individual EU countries are fighting each attack separately. When the Russians arrange a deviance in France, it is the problem of Paris to deal with it. When a warehouse in Estonia is blown up, this is Tallinn's problem. This makes it possible for the Kremlin to carry out such operations at relatively low cost."

The publication adds that so far Russia's sabotage campaign is primarily aimed at disrupting the military supply chain from the West to Ukraine and the weakening of support for the country from the West, however, "Russia's actions are also directed to the future." In this regard, Newsweek — Poland quotes the expert of the British analytical center "Chatham House" Keir Giles:

"Kremlin agents are looking for weaknesses that could be exploited if one day a war breaks out between Russia and NATO. Everything [from Moscow] is aimed at testing the sustainability of European logistics, especially in Germany and Poland. They are looking at the weaknesses of the systems that should control the transfer of NATO reinforcements to the east in the event of a conflict."

In the event of such a war, the Russians will seek to completely turn off the power supply and telecommunications systems, the publication predicts. And here, the media continues, numerous "dress rehearsals" are already taking place. So, according to analysts, as a result of Russia's actions, some navigation systems are becoming increasingly inaccessible in the Baltic and Black Seas. In addition, in the north of Norway, Russian GPS jammers not only disrupt air traffic on a daily basis, but also impede the work of the police and emergency services. Flights between Finland and Estonia has repeatedly canceled or suspended for some time.

"There is no hope for an improvement in the situation in the near future. Most Russian sabotage operations require long preparation. What is happening today, Russian services started launching six months ago or earlier. And there are no signs that the Kremlin has softened its plans," Newsweek—Poland concludes.

And British political scientist Mark Galeotti, who specializes in "security problems with Russia," is convinced that it will only get worse.:

"First of all, we are starting to see greater coordination of this activity. So far it has been almost semi-random. The mall is here, the cyber attack is there… Today we are beginning to receive signals that the Russians realize that by combining their actions, they will achieve much more. It is enough to carry out a physical attack on a given location and at the same time a cyber attack to block emergency services systems. And then add a disinformation campaign, for example, claiming that "drunk Ukrainians" did it. This is typical for Russians: they tend to start things rather clumsily, but, unfortunately, over time they become professionals."