British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Russia has the “intent and capability” to attack the West’s underwater energy and communications lines. The defense ministers of Great Britain and Norway signed an agreement on strategic partnership on Thursday to protect underwater infrastructure from the Russian threat.

At a news conference with his Norwegian counterpart at the Northwood military base on Thursday, Wallace said Moscow has submarines and reconnaissance ships “specifically designed” to “be able to sabotage or attack critical national infrastructure belonging to its enemies.” .

• “What we do know is that the Russians have an operational program, they have a specific naval program designed to probe and be able to sabotage or attack critical national infrastructure that is owned by adversaries. It has a number of submarines and other equipment, scout ships and everything else designed specifically for this purpose. So, whether we are talking about Nord Stream or whether we are talking about our own infrastructure, this is an area that is vulnerable and needs to be protected. What we can say without a doubt is that Russia has the intent and ability to target critical national infrastructure in the West. We have to have the intent and the ability to protect it,” Wallace said, according to The Guardian.

Security patrols to protect underwater infrastructure from the Russian threat

Wallace and Norwegian Defense Minister Bjorn Arild Gram signed a letter of intent to strengthen cooperation in countering submarine threats after last year’s attack on the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Thus, the two defense ministers signed a strategic partnership on Thursday to protect underwater infrastructure from the Russian threat, AFP reports.

• “Increasing use of the seabed for energy and communications creates more opportunities for adversaries to threaten critical national underwater infrastructure, as seen in the Nord Stream gas pipeline disaster,” the British defense statement said, adding that London and Oslo “jointly increased security patrols.” in the region”.

“We have to be vigilant about our vulnerability,” and in the face of “a deliberate program that the Russians have invested in,” Wallace warned, “we have to do the same.”

Underlining the need for closer military cooperation between the allies, Norwegian Defense Minister Bjorn Arild Gram stressed that it was possible to “improve our ability to detect submarines” and “protect our underwater infrastructure”.

Possible sabotage of underwater cables by Russia to take revenge on the West

In fact, NATO intelligence chief David Cuttler has warned since early May that Russia may sabotage submarine cables to punish Western countries for supporting Ukraine.

“There is a growing concern that Russia may target submarine cables and other critical infrastructure in an attempt to disrupt life in the West in order to gain leverage over those countries that keep Ukraine safe,” David Cuttler told reporters.

“The Russians are more active in the area than we’ve seen in recent years,” he said, adding that they are patrolling the Atlantic more than in recent years and have stepped up their activity in the North and Baltic seas.

Threats to submarine cables and pipelines came into the public spotlight after explosions in September 2022, still unexplained, damaged the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, built to transport gas from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea.

The NATO intelligence chief’s comments came after a new episode of a joint investigation by Scandinavian broadcasters revealed that the activities of Russia’s “ghost fleet” in the Baltic Sea consisted of ships with their transmitters switched off so they could not move. traced, raised new suspicions about Moscow’s possible role in the explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

How valuable are these submarine cables really?

As concerns grow about the safety of undersea cables, Western countries are looking to turn the North Sea into a “green engine” by planning a series of new wind farms that will be connected to the mainland by cables.

Other undersea cables carry about 95 percent of the world’s Internet traffic at speeds of about 200 terabits per second, with 200 of those 400 cables considered critical, according to NATO.

“In total, they do about $10 trillion in financial transactions every day, so these cables are really the backbone of the economy,” said Cuttler, NATO’s assistant secretary general for intelligence and security.

He warned that NATO’s adversaries realize the enormous strategic advantage of being able to threaten the security of the Internet, energy and Western financial systems.

“Russia is actively mapping critical allied infrastructure both on land and on the seabed,” Cuttler said, describing the procedure as part of an underwater reconnaissance program run by part of the Russian Defense Ministry.

Sources: AFP, The Guardian, HotNews