NATO suspects Russia of mining internet cables in the North Sea
Russian ships “behaved unusually” when passing over key cables and pipelines.
The North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) believes that Russia may have mined critical underwater infrastructure in the North Sea, reports The Times.
The suspicions are based on data from companies that manage key electricity and telecommunications cables, gas towers, and pipelines.
Over the past 10 years, more than 160 Russian civilian vessels have made 945 suspicious maneuvers. Of these, 124 were around telecommunication cables, 749 were recorded within a kilometer of pipelines in the North Sea, and another 72 suspicious activities were carried out in the vicinity of electricity cables.
Passing over the underwater infrastructure, the vessels slowed down. According to the publication, they did so for intelligence and sabotage purposes.
“Every Russian vessel, even if it works for a private company, is working for the government anyway. Unusual routes do not always raise questions, but it is suspicious if they pass over pipelines and cables,” experts say.
As a reminder, threats to submarine cables and pipelines have become the subject of attention of Western European security services after the explosions in September 2022 on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.
As a result, NATO became concerned about a possible Russian attack on the undersea cables that carry some 98% of the world’s Internet data and telephone traffic.
