The fact that PET has seen concrete sabotage plans against Denmark is not, in itself, surprising, but it does show that hybrid war has reached a new level.
That is what Flemming Splidsboel, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies specializing in Russia and Ukraine, tells Politiken:
»I’m not surprised. Of course, I didn’t know it would happen right now, but this is something we’ve been talking about, and I have personally warned that it would happen. There have also been several cases of people being recruited from various groups to carry out these kinds of acts. Because if you don’t have agents on the ground, then you have to get them somehow«, Splidsboel says.
On Wednesday evening, the Dansih newspaper Berlingske published an interview with PET in which Emil Græsholm, head of counterespionage at PET, said that the service had seen concrete examples of sabotage plans against Denmark.
»We have seen preparation and planning, and our task is to detect and counter it at an early stage and not wait until something is already burning. But this is concrete planning to such a degree that we are concerned«, he told Berlingske, among other things.
With that statement in mind, Flemming Splidsboel makes it clear that hybrid war has now reached a new level. PET’s disclosure follows the story from Germany, where Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said at a joint press conference that, according to the German authorities, Russia was behind an attempted drone attack in Leipzig that was thwarted in August.
Afterward, they declared that Germany would close the last Russian consulate in the country. Earlier today, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M) also said that he would summon the Russian ambassador to Denmark for talks.
That is why Europe is now forced to respond, Flemming Splidsboel says:
»Europe has to come up with a response. The Germans also have to follow up on their statements, because closing a consulate does not hurt the Russians. It is possible that the EU will come up with a joint response, perhaps in the form of speeding up the new sanctions package that is on the way. Because the threat has now become more acute«.
The upcoming sanctions package will be the 22nd round. Earlier this year, the 21st sanctions package took effect, and it was aimed in particular at Russian banks and crypto companies.
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