NATO warns of russia's intentions to sabotage submarine cables and pipelines

russia may sabotage submarine cables and pipelines in the Baltic and North Seas or in the Atlantic. This could be revenge against Western countries for their support of Ukraine in the russian war.

Source. This was stated by NATO Chief of Intelligence David Kattler, Voice of America reports.

"There is heightened concern that russia may target undersea cables and other critical infrastructure in an effort to disrupt Western life in order to gain leverage over those countries that provide security assistance to Ukraine," Kattler said. – "The russians are more active than we've seen them in years in this area.

According to him, they are patrolling the waters of the Atlantic and have intensified their activities in the North and Baltic Seas:

"russia is actively mapping critical allied infrastructure both on land and on the seabed."

However, NATO allies are closely monitoring russian vessels equipped with sensors that can collect electronic or acoustic information from the seabed, he emphasized.

Undersea cables carry about 95% of the world's internet traffic at about 200 terabytes per second, and 200 of those 400 cables are considered critical, NATO says.

Kattler said that these cables provide "financial transactions worth about $10 trillion every day, so they really are the backbones of the economy."

In September 2022, explosions damaged the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, built to transport gas from russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea. Kattler refused to talk about who was behind the attacks, citing the ongoing investigation.

As reported, Denmark has invited the russian-controlled operator to remove an unknown object near the Nord Stream pipe.