Tag: sabotage

Russian Intel Warns of UK Plan to Stage Tanker Incident

British intelligence agencies are planning to involve NATO allies in launching a large-scale crackdown on the so-called “shadow fleet” carrying Russian oil, the press bureau of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said on Monday.

“According to information received by the SVR, British intelligence services are planning to engage NATO allies to carry out a massive sweep of the ‘shadow fleet’. London’s idea is to trigger such a campaign with a high-profile incident involving one or several tankers. The plan envisions staging a major act of sabotage, the damage from which would allow them to declare Russian oil transportation a threat to global maritime navigation,” the statement said.

According to the SVR, this would give the West free rein in choosing methods of counter-action.

“In the extreme scenario, this could mean detaining any ‘suspicious’ vessels in international waters and escorting them to NATO member-state ports,” the statement added.

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Ukraine Doubles Down on Terrorist Attacks, Sabotaging TWO Railway Bridges in Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk Regions – 7 Dead, Over 70 Injured, Including Children

As the peace negotiations unfold, with a second round of talks expected tomorrow (2) in Istanbul, the war in Ukraine continues unabated, with Russian forces advancing not only in the Eastern Donetsk Oblast, but also in northern regions of Sumy and Kharkov.

Just in the last week of offensive operations, Russia has occupied over 18 Ukrainian settlements and about 200 square kilometers, according to German newspaper BILD.

With its frontline formations collapsing in multiple points of the frontline, Ukraine is resorting ever more to asymmetrical tactics – a.k.a. terrorism.

Just three days ago, a suicide bomber blew himself up in Stavropol and killed Russian Major Zaur Aleksandrovich Gurtsiev.

The bomber, who rented a room in the Major building, approached Gurtsiev and detonated explosives in his bag – both men died.

Now if that was not enough, TWO Russian railway bridges were blown up overnight in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk in sabotage attacks.

The explosions and train derailings left a deadly trail of 7 fatalities and dozens of wounded, mostly civilians and including children – in a move that will most likely prompt severe retaliation by Moscow, in the eve of the June 2 talks in Istanbul.

RT reported:

“On Saturday evening, a bridge fell in front of a moving train in Bryansk Region, killing seven people and injuring 71 others. Several hours later, early on Sunday, a railway bridge collapsed under a moving freight train in Kursk Region, leaving the driver and two of his assistants wounded.”

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French Leftist Anarchists Claim Responsibility for Cannes Power Outage Sabotage

Far-left anarchists have claimed responsibility for sabotage attacks on electrical systems and causing power outages in Southern France over the weekend, including at the Cannes Film Festival.

Posting on the far-left online platform IndyMedia, an anonymous group of anarcho-radicals claimed to have sabotaged key electrical infrastructure over the weekend, which left around 160,00 people without power in the Alpes-Maritimes department and around 45,000 in Nice.

The suspected sabotage attacks began in the late hours of Friday evening and continued through Sunday, briefly impacting the closing of the Cannes Film Festival, which the leftist arsonists branded an “obscene ceremony by a sea that has become a refugee cemetery.” However, the event organisers were able to run the programme off backup generators, and therefore, the finale was ultimately uninterrupted.

The supposed saboteurs, who described themselves as “two bands of anarchists”, said that their intention was to both interrupt the film festival as well as shut off power to Thales Alenia Space and other French defence contractors in the region, which they accused of fostering a world which “will not stop bombing, exploiting, extracting, grabbing, raping, ravaging, starving, machine-gunning, polluting, and exterminating, until everything is under its control.”

They accused the French government of being hypocritical, saying that while it preaches the principles of “progress on the international scene,” it is the second-largest arms exporter in the world behind the United States.

“French excellence in this area arms NATO and sows death, from Yemen to Gaza, from Ukraine to the Sahel,” they said, adding that the defence firms in the Cannes region employ thousands of engineers and technicians who “work there daily to develop these military (observation, communication, missile and drone guidance) and civilian (telecommunications, surveillance) satellites.”

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Canadian man sentenced to 25 years for attack on Keystone XL Pipeline, US energy infrastructure

A Canadian man has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for attacking energy infrastructure in the United States, causing $1.7 million in damages. A judge ruled that his crimes met the legal definition of terrorism.

Cameron Smith, 50, originally from the Toronto area but living in Astoria, Oregon, was sentenced on Monday. In addition to prison time, he was ordered to pay over $2.1 million in restitution and $250,000 in fines. Smith also faces deportation upon his release.

Smith pleaded guilty in September to charges of destroying energy facilities. The attacks occurred in 2022 near Carpenter, South Dakota, and in 2023 near Ray, North Dakota. US District Judge Daniel Traynor handed down two consecutive 12-year-and-6-month sentences—far exceeding the federal guideline range of 3.5 to 4.25 years per count.

“Smith also admitted to damaging a transformer and pumpstation of the Keystone Pipeline located near Carpenter, South Dakota, in an amount exceeding $100,000, in July 2022. Smith damaged the Wheelock substation and the Keystone Pipeline equipment by firing multiple rounds from a high-power rifle into the equipment resulting in disruption of electric services to the North Dakota customers and resulting in disruption of the Keystone Pipeline in South Dakota,” the Justice Department says.

Prosecutor David Hagler defended the stiff sentence, arguing that Smith’s actions fit the definition of terrorism by “attempting to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.”

Smith’s defense attorney, Douglas Passon, pushed back, describing his client as a “hyper-aware individual wanting to create awareness about climate change” who intentionally chose remote locations to prevent harm to people.

In the South Dakota case, Smith’s attack led to the shutdown of a Keystone XL Pipeline pump station, causing a leak that damaged surrounding land. In North Dakota, he damaged transformers and infrastructure at an electrical substation, leading to power outages for 243 customers.

During sentencing, Smith told the court he had resorted to direct action out of frustration after years of attempting to raise awareness about climate change through legal channels. He pleaded for a lesser sentence, citing his autism and Crohn’s disease, said the Justice Department in a release.

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The Art of the Sabotage: The Far Left’s Betrayal of Ukraine Is Coming

I’ll open with the punchline, but be forewarned — there’s nothing funny about it: The Far Left will betray Ukraine because they hate Trump more than they care about the Ukrainian people.

Those poor, suffering civilians in Ukraine? They’re abstractions — mere cannon fodder for a greater cause. Been that way since the beginning of the conflict, and although the Biden administration never formally admitted it, slaughtering Russians and Ukrainians in a long, protracted bloodbath was America’s objective all along.

Sure, we “dolled up” the policy with high-minded speeches about protecting liberty and Russia being evil and/or Ukraine being pure and good, and vowing that Putin “cannot remain in power,” but we never sought any sort of resolution. Not really. Instead, we armed Ukraine with just enough equipment, weapons, technology, and artillery to maintain the status quo. 

It was a bloodbath we wanted, and a bloodbath we got.

From the Far Left’s viewpoint, the plan made sense: Russia was our “enemy” — especially after they interfered in the 2016 election and cheated poor Hillary out of the presidency. And then, in 2022, they invaded a neighboring country. Y’know who else invaded their neighbors? That’s right: HITLER! Clearly, it’s in our strategic interest to weaken the next Hitler.

And when you strip away all the high-minded rhetoric, that’s been Biden’s true objective all along. Let the war continue. Let Russia hemorrhage. Let the Red Army bleed itself dry.

A healthy, intact Russian military is a threat. Therefore, let’s weaken it as much as possible, depleting it of its weaponry, equipment, and manpower.

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Sweden Says No Sabotage In Baltic Sea Cable Damage, Releases Seized Ship (But Russia!)

The mainstream media narrative of Russian ‘shadow fleet’ vessels traversing the Baltic Sea in a clandestine anti-NATO operation to sabotage vital underwater communications cables linking European nations continues to unravel at rapid pace.

Swedish authorities have issued the results of their official investigation into Malta-flagged Vezhen ship, following the discovery of damage to a fiber-optic cable between Sweden and Latvia on Jan. 26. Authorities had immediately seized the cargo ship on suspicion it intentionally damaged the cable.

But in a sudden turn, as of Monday the Vezhen has been released after the investigation found no wrong-doing. It was not the result of sabotage or any intentional plot, investigators now say.

“The investigation concerning a cable break between Sweden and Latvia in the Baltic Sea has clarified that it is not a case of gross sabotage,” Swedish prosecutors said in a new statement.

“It has been established that a combination of weather conditions and deficiencies in equipment and seamanship contributed to the cable break,” Senior Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist added in the statement.

The consensus is that as the vessel was transporting fertilizer from Ust-Luga, Russia to South America – a ship anchor was damaged and unintentionally dropped into the sea during extremely bad weather, which is when the damage to the cable occurred. The incident is one of several cable incidents in regional waters still being investigated as suspected Russian sabotage.

Now that the ship has resumed its journey to South America, its operator has indicated it may stop for repairs in nearby Denmark.

A statement by ship operator Navigation Maritime Bulgare (Navibulgar) to AFP said Swedish authorities formally notified the crew that “there is no reason to believe that sabotage or malicious act was committed on board by our crew.”

It said the crew members, who had been detained along with the ship, are in good health and that they are resuming the journey. A week ago the company had vehemently denied that this was an act of sabotage, and called on Sweden to quickly release the vessel. 

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NATO, Sweden, Latvia On High Alert After Baltic Undersea Data Cable “Damaged”

The third severing of an undersea cable in just three months occurred on Sunday, this time between Latvia and Sweden in the Baltic Sea. The incident has prompted a criminal investigation and heightened concerns of potential sabotage by Russia or China.

Latvia’s State Radio and Television Center, a data transmission provider, released this statement about the damaged cable connecting Ventspils in Latvia and Sweden’s Gotland island:

In the early morning of January 26, the submarine fiber optic cable of the Latvian State Radio and Television Centre (hereinafter – LVRTC) in the Baltic Sea was damaged. The LVRTC Data Transmission Monitoring System recorded disruptions in data transmission services on the Ventspils – Gotland (Fårösund) section. LVRTC continues to provide services using other data transmission routes. Currently, there is a possible delay in data transmission speed, but it does not affect end users in Latvia for the most part.

Prime Minister Evika Silina commented about the incident on X:

Early morning today we received information that the data cable from Latvia to Sweden was damaged in the Baltic Sea, in the section that is located in the Exclusive economic zone of Sweden. We are working together with our Swedish Allies and NATO on investigating the incident, including to patrolling the area, as well as inspecting the vessels that were in the area. Authorities have intensified information exchange and started criminal investigation.

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It Begins: China Cuts Undersea Internet Cables to Taiwan

In September, a group of journalists (including me) were hosted by Taiwanese national security experts to discuss the developing crisis of Chinese aggression toward Taiwan.

The portion of the week-long visit at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, the Taiwanese Defense and Security Think Tank akin to MITRE, Rand, or The Aerospace Corporation, contained an urgent and compelling message.

“We will be quarantined within six months and the first step of the operation will be China cutting our undersea cables to interrupt our communications with the world” was what Senior research fellows at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan, Drs. Tzu-Yun Su, Shan-son Kung, and Charles C.J. Wang, shared.  Their observations were prescient because that has now happened.

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Finnish Commandos Seize Russia-Linked Ship After Undersea Cable Cut

Finland has seized the ship which is being accused of cutting of an undersea cable connecting electricity to Estonia, allegedly on behalf of Russia, given that the vessel was carrying Russian oil. Finnish authorities and Western officials have described the damage to the Estlink 2 electricity cable as the result of “aggravated criminal mischief”.

EU officials have characterized the incident as part of Russia’s hybrid warfare against NATO, with a European Commission statement describing the cable severing as “the latest in a series of suspected attacks on critical infrastructure.”

The vessel in question was observed traversing the same area where the cable damage occurred near in time to the incident. Four additional telecom cables were disrupted – one linking Finland and Germany and three between Finland and Estonia.

Finland’s coast guard boarded the suspect vessel on Thursday:

Finnish police said in a statement that the coastguard crew boarded an oil tanker in Finnish waters early on Thursday. Authorities named the vessel as the Eagle S, and said it was registered in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.

When it was detained, the ship was sailing from Russia’s Saint Petersburg to Port Said in Egypt, according to online marine tracking website, MarineTraffic.

According to MarineTraffic, the ship was owned by United Arab Emirates-based vessel management company, Caravella.

The European Commission in its statement additionally accused the Eagle S ship of being part of Russia’s energy sanctions-busting ‘shadow fleet’.

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Scandinavians, the World’s Happiest People, Love Killing for the USA

“If Russia invades—that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine—then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.” President Joe Biden said standing next to the new Social Democrat chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, at a White House news conference, February 7, 2022.

When pressed for details on how he would keep that promise given that the pipeline is not under U.S. control, Biden stated: “I promise you, we will be able to do it.”

Scholz hedged, saying only that Germany was “acting together” with its allies and promising “very, very harsh” steps against Russia if it invades Ukraine.

Three weeks earlier, Undersecretary Victoria Nuland delivered the same message at a State Department briefing. “If Russia invades Ukraine, one way or another, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.”

Nuland was Obama and Biden’s point woman for organizing the 2014 fascistic coup in Ukraine. She was caught on tape telling Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, who should run the coup government, as if she were in charge of Ukraine.

The coup took place three weeks later, February 24, 2014, and led to neo-fascist military battalions’ war against ethnic Russians in the Donbas area, and the Crimean secession.

On February 19, Ukraine President Vladimir Zelensky made it clear his country would join NATO and he implied that he wished to have nuclear weapons. That, at least, is how Russia’s government interpreted what he sought when he spoke at the Munich Security Council.

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