Ecoterrorism, Russian Sabotage, or Both?

Ecoterrorists admitted perpetrating an arson attack on Berlin's power grid just after the New Year. As of January 4, the damage had the potential to deprive 35,000 homes of electricity for days during sub-freezing weather.

Although the group has a history of similar attacks, it was interesting who else was under consideration for this act:

Preliminary theories for the weekend power outage had included possible Russian sabotage, as Germany has been on high alert for attacks on its infrastructure from foreign actors.

Given Putin's admitted desire rule Europe, his invasion of Ukraine, and Russia's recent provocations in Western Europe, this concern makes perfect sense.

But it may be wrong to let Russia off the hook just because some terrorists bragged about doing this.

The story reminded me of something I'd heard about years ago to the effect that Russia long funded anti-fossil fuel activism, particularly in Europe, with a major goal being to make Europe dependent on Russian oil and gas:

[O]ne source of funding is Russian-based fossil fuel companies Gazprom and Lukoil, whose goal is to reduce EU fossil fuel production. "According to one interviewee, mining shale gas in the EU would disadvantage Russia due to its financial dependency on the EU's gas imports. The Russian government has therefore invested €82 million [about $90 million] in NGOs whose job is to persuade EU governments to stop shale gas exploration," the Martens [Centre] paper says.

By trying to turn public opinion and policy against fossil fuel production, especially fracking, Russian oil and natural gas producers would face less competition, allowing them to charge higher prices, realize greater profits and make Europe even more dependent on Russian oil and gas.

Obviously, the benefits to Russia would extend well beyond improved profits for its fossil fuel companies to include also softening up its military targets.

The guilty party in this attack may or may not have ties to Russia -- and would not have to -- for it to be true that it may well owe its existence to decades of spadework on Russia's part to cash in on the long-term cultural decline of the West.

-- CAV