The Kremlin and its allies have started to harvest the fruits of the seeds they have been planting for years. Moscow occupies territories of Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine; actively wages war on another part of Ukrainian soil; and is now playing a game of political subversion in several Western states.
In the past few years, Russian intelligence has infiltrated the Dutch Foreign Ministry, the Czech general staff, the Polish Defense Ministry, and Portuguese intelligence. Moscow used its cyber weapons to attack the German Bundestag, and manipulated the US presidential campaign by hacking the team behind a candidate Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to politically wound. A massive disinformation campaign aimed at swaying the UK electorate was manufactured by Russian institutions or the Kremlin’s troll farms in St. Petersburg.
