Russia is signaling it could take out the West’s internet and GPS. There’s no good backup plan.
Russia is signaling it could take out the West’s internet and GPS. There’s no good backup plan.
In June, Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, issued a stark warning.
The undersea cables that enable global communications had become a legitimate target for Russia, he said.
Medvedev based his claim on the belief that the West had been involved in blowing up Nord Stream 2, a pipeline transferring gas from Russia to Germany.
“If we proceed from the proven complicity of Western countries in blowing up the Nord Streams, then we have no constraints – even moral – left to prevent us from destroying the ocean floor cable communications of our enemies,” Medvedev posted on Telegram.
(Recent reports, however, suggest Ukraine was actually behind the attack.)
Medvedev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has a long history of making incendiary claims.
According to analysts, however, this was not just another idle threat.
A serious warning
The vast network of undersea fiber optic cables that transfer data between continents is indeed vulnerable to hostile powers, including Russia, The Center for Strategic and International Studies warned in a report this month.
In May, NATO’s intelligence chief David Cattler warned that Russia may be planning to target the cables in revenge for the West’s support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
It’s a scenario that has NATO’s planners increasingly worried.
