27 July 2024

Russia’s Hybrid Warfare Against NATO

Joe Varner

Vladimir Putin stung by two and a half years failures and stalemate on the Ukrainian battlefield has tried everything for a decisive win and has now turned to a dual strategy of conventional war against Kyiv and hybrid war against NATO. NATO has warned for months in the run up to this year’s 75th Anniversary of NATO and European elections that Russia is out for revenge and out to destabilize western countries with hybrid warfare. NATO’s support for Ukraine in terms of training, treasure, and equipment has angered the Kremlin, and from Moscow’s point of view the West is using Ukraine as a proxy in war with Vladimir Putin. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of Russia's Security Council and Vladimir Putin’s close ally has called for Russians to mobilise to inflict "maximum harm" on Western societies and infrastructure. In response to the Russian hybrid warfare threat, NATO Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg held a Defence Ministers meeting in Brussels to counter the "Russian campaign of hostile activities against NATO allies."

Hybrid Warfare

Hybrid Warfare is an amalgam of political, unconventional, and conventional actions geared to subvert and destroy a target state without crossing the threshold to open war. In hybrid warfare, the lines between war and peace are blurred and used against the target state. Russian attacks in Europe have come in diverse ways including arson and sabotage, assassination, cyber attacks, disinformation, GPS jamming, migration, and potentially disruptions of power and energy flow and undersea cables. All hybrid attacks are geared to destabilize NATO democracies and distract their attention from Ukraine War and even to dissuade them from their continued support of Ukraine. Poland, the Baltic States, Germany, the UK, and the Czech Republic have all reported incidents of hybrid warfare in the last year and Russia is ratcheting up its campaign against NATO Countries as a quick review of Moscow-linked attacks show.

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