Shadow fleet cuts power cables in the Baltics
On malice from the East, connectivity in Europe, and the need for critical infrastructure to get locked down now
While most of Europe is still celebrating the Christmas holiday, Finnish border guards have been busy detaining a ship from Russia's "shadow fleet" over some strong evidence that it dragged an anchor in order to cut an undersea power transmission line between Finland and Estonia. Telecommunications cables have been cut, too.
■ It's a good time to have Kaja Kallas, former prime minister of Estonia, in the seat as vice president of the European Commission and its chief foreign-affairs representative. Her statement on the incident was direct and plainspoken: "We strongly condemn any deliberate destruction of Europe's critical infrastructure. The suspected vessel is part of Russia's shadow fleet, which threatens security and the environment, while funding Russia's war budget. We will propose further measures, including sanctions, to target this fleet." That's the kind of talk that ought to be the standard everywhere.
■ If you are involved in any way, shape, or form with anything that might be considered critical infrastructure (power, water, telecom, gas, or whatever else keeps civilization functioning), this incident is a bright flashing sign to lock down whatever you can. Do it in the physical world. Do it in the cyber sphere. This behavior is both intentionally escalatory and in the process of getting worse.
■ It's clear that the Kremlin is out to use attacks on critical infrastructure to achieve asymmetrical gains against the countries that favor a rules-based order in the world. It's easier and cheaper for bad actors to go around causing damage and creating chaos than it is for good actors to protect their assets. Painful as that disproportionality might be, it's the unfortunate reality. If this is how they're acting on Christmas, we shouldn't expect anything better by spring. We need to plan for much worse.
