Russia using criminal networks to drive increase in sabotage acts, says Europol

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/18/russia-criminal-networks-drive-increase-sabotage-europol

Summary

Europol reports that Russia and other state actors are using criminal networks to conduct sabotage, cyber-attacks, and migrant smuggling to destabilize the EU.

The agency’s 2025 threat assessment describes a “shadow alliance” where criminals act as proxies for state-backed hybrid threats. Recent attacks, including arson in Lithuania and Poland, have been linked to Russian intelligence.

Officials warn of ongoing security risks, including AI-driven cybercrime.

Europol says these tactics aim to weaken institutions through persistent disruptions rather than large-scale attacks.

174 points · 6 comments · view on lemmy.world

6 Comments

lka1988@sh.itjust.works · 19 pts · 1y

Can someone just fucking kill Putin already? I've had enough of this asshole's pot-stirring bullshit.

NotLemming@lemm.ee · 12 pts · 1y (2 replies)
[ removed ]
Paragone@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Last century I read part of a CIA manual on operating in foreign-countries..

it insisted that doing things through local-organized-crime was ideal, as

  • they get the blame/credit
  • everything is deniable
  • it can be run as a profitable operation
  • none of "our" people ( I'm Canadian, not US-ian ) get front-line risks
  • etc..

So, Russia & the US both use the same manual then?

Who's the Good Guys, if everybody is doing this, this way??

Machiavellianism wins, doesn't it?

Unfortunately, yes, it does.

I happen to want NONmachiavellianism winning, permanently, from now on.

got no traction, for that, though..

not yet, anyways..

maybe if we dig-in, & work, & work, & work, for years, maybe future-generations can have the world we could have made..

_ /\ _

Paragone@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1y

PS: Russia's been acting to increase the refugee-loading on Europe as a destabilizing-method, for .. decades now??

This isn't new.

The intensity may be new, but now he's closer to winning the butchering of Europe, so this is to be expected..

jmd_akbar@aussie.zone · 7 pts · 1y

They don't need any other criminal network - they have the best network in the White House now...

kingofras@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y

If he goes asymmetric, we go asymmetric. Let see how well his corrupt apparatus will identify a single Western operative. Not that hard to get a sniper rifle in Russia on the black market. Heck, the Russian black market is so ubiquitous I’m sure you could easily find a replacement president too.

DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth · 4 pts · 1y

How come countries never seem to do shit when this stuff happens?