Norway calling out Russia's jamming shows European policy shift
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The accusation was direct and unflinching: Russian forces stationed in the Arctic Circle had been jamming NATO's GPS signals during the alliance's largest military exercise since the Cold War.
The alleged incident happened during Trident Juncture , a huge, two-week drill hosted in Norway last month, involving 50,000 personnel from 31 countries.
Last week Norway revealed that Russian forces stationed in the nearby Kola Peninsula had been jamming their GPS signals during the exercise. Finland summoned the Russian ambassador and NATO called it "dangerous, disruptive and irresponsible."
Russia denies the allegations. And experts say attempting to disrupt a military exercise on its doorstep is nothing new.
But the incident was notable because it showed how Washington's European allies are changing their tactics to deal with Moscow's alleged misdeeds.
Before, Western countries may have tried to address Russia's actions in closed diplomatic sessions. Now they are openly reprimanding them.
NATO and its partner states have shifted to a "public engagement campaign, which basically calls people out for cyber attacks, jamming and disruptive behavior to try and deter and discourage it," said Jack Watling, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a think tank based in London.
This change was not an official one; there was no speech, written statement or policy document signalling that allies were going to take a different approach.
But analysts say that it's been clear nonetheless; a demonstrable change of tactic after the ex-spy Sergei Skripal was poisoned — allegedly on Kremlin orders — on British soil in March this year.
"There is a wider policy shift to call out Russia because of the increased intensity of challenges," ranging from military threats and spying to hacking and signal jamming, according to Gustav Gressel, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank. "That policy-shift is shared by most NATO countries."
The Europeans now feel that "it does not make sense to address these issues in closed diplomatic sessions with Russia, as Russian diplomats would only deny and outright lie," Gressel added.
With Skripal, U.K. authorities laid out in painstaking detail how two men they identified as agents with Russia's military intelligence agency, commonly known by its old acronym, the GRU, had traveled to the English city of Salisbury and poisoned their target.
Six months of meticulous investigation allowed British police to trace the route they had taken, right down to the flights they boarded, the trains they rode and the hotels where they stayed.
That incident appeared to signal that the gloves were off.
In April, Dutch authorities busted an alleged GRU plot to hack into the headquarters of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Hague.
When they r evealed the sting months later , as with the Skripal case, their investigators showed in forensic detail how the four men had traveled from Moscow to the Netherlands — right down to their taxi receipts.
Hours before this information was made public, back in early October, the British government, backed by New Zealand and Australia, again named and shamed the GRU as being behind a number of "indiscriminate and reckless cyber attacks targeting political institutions, businesses, media and sport" around the world.
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What has surprised me, is that it took this long for the world to wake up to the fact that Russia is really a bad player on the world stage. "Why?" is really the big question.
Russia wants to be top dog in the world power stage and this is how they plan to do it. They want to show everyone that they are vulnerable if the Russians choose to act. The Russians have been disrupting elections across Europe and it is very likely that they can blackmail Trump if they choose to do so, so he is their puppet by disrupting normal politics and the economy in the US.
Well didn't take long to blame this on T-rump also....
But then how does one explain the aggressive flyovers of our naval ships in attack posture during the Obama Presidency?
Or the aggressive subversion tactics during the Bush administration?
Russia is getting aggressive cause of two reasons, they have greater resources and they have the opinion that we are weak and vacillating.
And trying out new technology in operational fashion is a good way to test it's effectiveness. WE do have to remember the Gulf War, almost everyone was gambling that our advanced tech weapons would not work in sustained conflict.
they were all caught with their pants down when they, for the most part, did... (and were 100 times more effective than anyone thought they would be especially taking all their electronics offline)
They have been playing catch-up ever since....
It's good that they are being called out, just don't make the mistake of allowing them to KNOW that they are catching up to us, that would be a very dangerous situation for the world.
I am sure you have absolute proof of this? TDS, TDS, TDS. Russia is still disrupting life in the US w/o needing to do one damn thing. The left has fallen for the faux Russia/Trump collusion hook line and sinker. The Russia bots had adds both for and against Trump during and after the campaign. They organized rallies both for and against Trump both during and after the campaign. But keep the damn blinders on.
Show us one example of Trump going easy on Russia.
Sanctions still in place? Yes, and increased since Trump took office.
If Trump is a Russian puppet he is a horrible one. Of course Russia couldn't be meddling in US elections as payback for the US flipping buffer states over to NATO; trying to remove a key Russian ally in Syria; and backing a anti-Russian coup in the Ukraine. Putin couldn't have been anti Hillary over Bill's war with Serbia. He wouldn't think twice about having Hillary in charge with her over the top push to remove Assad from Syria; and her calls for a US enforced no fly zone over Syria. Better still the US has never meddled in any foreign elections, including those of our allies (Obama meddling in Israel's election being the most recent).
Putin must be laughing at how easy it is to divide the US. No reason for him to stop trying to influence us now.
Who said they were controlling the elections?
I’d say the US is just getting a taste of our own medicine as we have been hacking into their computers for a very long time. We will need another Edward Snowden for the truth to really come to light.
So, with regards to Russia being a bad player at the international level these days, last weekend they began playing "games" with Ukraine again.
Sat on it until a somewhat coherent story could be pieced together.
I do not know how familiar folks are with the geography over there with regards to Odessa, Crimea, Black Sea, Sea of Azov and the Kerch Straigt, but it looks like this:
Okay, sometime during the weekend, Ukraine calls Russia to say they are going to move a tugboat from Odessa to Mariupol.
In case anyone has forgotten, Russia "annexed" (stole) Crimea from Ukraine a few years ago. Then, this past year, Russia completed a bridge from Russia to Kerch at the Kerch Strait.
A little later the tug and it's escort of a couple light gun boats show up at that bridge only to find this scene:
I don't know about anyone else, that is not a place I would expect to park a freighter OR expect to see a freighter parked.
Of course, according to the FSB, it was a "provocation" when the Ukrainian boats arrived and wanted a way past. Notice the "anguish" in the Russians voice when he must lower himself to pronounce the word Ukraine.
As the world turns and Russia continues to move un-checked.
P.S. This story gives background insight regarding Trumps concerns voiced about Moldova following his visit to Moscow to speak with Putin.
P.P.S. 10 Ukraine regions are now under Martia law. That is worth a separate post.