Europe Sounds The Alarm Bells
Plus: A Spy Saga Update and We Need to Talk About Your Flair
I’m pleased to be quoted in this insane story from New Lines Magazine about Russia using Ukrainian kids for suicide attacks. This is ISIS-level shit. Do read it.
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ALEX’S WEEKLY RANT!
More signs came this week that Europe is beginning to understand the threat emanating from Russia. Whether they choose to do something about it remains unclear, but it does seem officials are boosting the message that Russia is at war with the West.
Dutch intelligence reported that Russian hybrid attacks on Europe have increased and will increase even more, even if there is a ceasefire in Ukraine.
“We see the Russian threat against Europe is increasing, including after a possible end to the war against Ukraine,” the head of the Netherlands’ military intelligence service, MIVD, said in the agency’s annual report. “The conflict in the gray zone between war and peace has become a reality. More and more, state actors try to undermine our society with hybrid attacks.”
A few days later, the French also launched a salvo, officially blaming Russia’s military intelligence for dozens of cyberattacks against France. “These destabilizing activities are unacceptable and unworthy of a permanent member of the UN Security Council,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Alongside its partners, France is determined to use all the means at its disposal to anticipate, discourage and react to Russia’s malicious behavior in cyberspace.”
Czech officials have publicly said there were 100 attacks in Europe attributed to Russia in 2024, with another 500 suspected to have been carried out by Russia. That would suggest Russia is attacking Europe at least once a day. The recent messaging from other countries might suggest Europe is getting bolder in naming and shaming Russia.
There’s likely more to come. The Dossier Center has reported that the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service, is tasking its agents in Europe with an “ultra urgent” mission to carry out active measures attacks on Kremlin critics in Europe. The Russian proxies are to collect intel on politicians, journalists, bloggers, cultural figures, and other prominent individuals to be targeted.
And it’s not just hybrid war. There’s also a possibility of kinetic war, albeit in a few years. As
and outline in this excellent piece, Russia is planning ahead, so Europe better do the same.Is Russia to Blame for Stranded Trains and Planes Mainly in Spain?
Spain, meanwhile, opened an investigation into the massive power outage earlier this week that plunged most of the Iberian penninsula into darkness, leaving thousands stranded on trains, grounding planes, and leading at least one friend of mine to purchase enough canned tuna to last several years.
Of course, my first thought was: this is Russia.
However, officials quickly dismissed the possibility of a cyberattack being to blame for the sudden loss of 15 gigawatts of electricity—around 60 percent of the country’s total consumption at the time—for five seconds.
Now, a Spanish judge has declared the investigation into the cause of the outage “secret” and cited Russian attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure while doing so.
According to reporting from The Insider:
Making the case classified, [the judge] said, would reduce the risk of sensitive information leaking or the investigation being compromised. …The judge stated that the incident took place on Monday at approximately 12:30 p.m., disrupting computer systems that support critical infrastructure sectors including healthcare, energy, industry, and transportation. The impact, he said, created “a critical situation for the well-being and sense of security of all citizens.”
The court order also mentions that, under Article 573 of Spain’s Penal Code, cybercrimes can be classified as acts of terrorism if they are intended to undermine the constitutional order or seriously destabilize essential public services. [The judge] warned that interdependence among critical infrastructure systems can lead to cascading failures — precisely what appears to have occurred on April 28.
To illustrate the threat, the judge referenced the Ukrainian blackout of 2016, which is widely believed to have been the result of a state-sponsored cyberattack.
That attack on Ukraine was attributed to Sandworm, which we now know is connected to Russia’s military intelligence, GRU.
If the Spanish investigation finds Russia played a role in knocking out power to nearly the entire Iberian peninsula, it would mark an interesting crossroads for Spain and Portugal. Until now, the conflict in Ukraine has remained distant for them. The two countries have mostly been spared Russian hybrid attacks (although not entirely), allowing them to be tepid in their support for Ukraine. If it turns out this power outage was caused by Russia or its proxies, that dynamic might change.
A former aide to a German politician faces charges of being a spy
I wrote about the case last year. It’s a particularly interesting case since Krah himself is also under investigation for spying for both China and Russia.
German prosecutors also charged a woman who had worked at Leipzig airport, a logistics hub for military aid going to Ukraine. That woman gave intelligence about weapons movements and about employees of a German arms manufacturer—Rheinmetall—to the AfD aide, allegedly.
I would wager that Russian security services would be very interested in information about the movement of weapons bound for Ukraine and about employees working for one of Germany’s largest weapons manufacturers. Interesting to note, as well, that Russia reportedly plotted to assassinate the CEO of Rheinmetall. So even though the current charges only relate to China, I’m guessing we’ll be hearing some more about Russia in this case, too.
We Need To Talk About Your Flair
There’s a great scene in the 1999 film Office Space, in which Jennifer Aniston’s character’s boss at Chachki’s, a TGIF-type joint, lectures her on her flair.
“Fifteen is the minimum,” he tells her, after she shows him she is wearing fifteen pieces of flair. “Now it’s up to you if you just want to do the bare minimum. Or, like Brian, for example, has thirty-seven pieces of flair on today. …We want you to express yourself. Now, if you feel the bare minimum is enough, then ok. But some people choose to wear more, and we encourage that, ok? …You do want to express yourself, right?” (Triple click below to watch the scene. If that doesn’t work, click here.)
It’s a fantastic scene from a hilarious movie, but the intimated message is an important one. What her boss is saying here is that his employees should want to show their loyalty and dedication literally on their sleeve, and no one should have to ask them to do so.
I thought of this clip when I read in The Economist that Seb Gorka, the Hungarian leather vest-wearing counterterrorism czar at the US National Security Council who as I understand it has a seventh-grade level of understanding of terrorism, has furnished his staff with flair: lanyards that say, “WWFY & WWKY,” an abbreviation for Trump’s repeated warning to terrorists, “We will find you and we will kill you.”
These guys definitely want to express themselves.
Add a red MAGA hat, an AR-15 lapel pin, and a gold pin of Trump’s profile, and that’s some serious flair.
THE WEEK’S LINKS
A roundup of things you should be reading
TRUMP CORRUPTION
Secret Deals, Foreign Investments, Presidential Policy Changes: The Rise of Trump’s Crypto Firm (New York Times
EXCELLENT RESOURCES!
Just Security has launched WHAT JUST HAPPENED? as well as a litigation tracker to help readers keep up with the chaos
Alex Finley is a former officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, where she served in West Africa and Europe. She writes and teaches about terrorism, disinformation / covert influence, and oligarch yachts. Her writing has appeared in Slate, Reductress, Funny or Die, POLITICO, The Center for Public Integrity, and other publications. She has spoken to the BBC, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, France24, and numerous other media outlets. She was also invited once to speak at Harvard, which she now tells everyone within the first ten seconds of meeting them. She is the author of the Victor Caro series, satirical novels about the CIA. Before joining the CIA, Alex was a journalist, covering Capitol Hill, the Pentagon, and the Department of Energy. She reported on issues related to national security, intelligence, and homeland security. Did she mention she was invited to speak at Harvard?
Thank you for the shoutout Alex !
I would hope that the EU at some point bands together to launch massive an continuous cyberattack against Russia and cripples their infrastructure causing the citizenry to hunt Putin down and remove him from power. The US will never do this for sure or share any strategies on keeping Russia at bay.