Russia Blamed For 100 Hybrid Attacks In Europe

A senior European diplomat said that up to 100 "suspicious incidents" in Europe this year could be attributed to Russia, as western officials grapple with how to respond to suspected Russian sabotage attempts.

- Guardian international staff

Speaking at a meeting with Nato counterparts in Brussels, the Czech foreign minister, Jan Lipavsky, stressed that Europe "needs to send a strong signal to Moscow that this won't be tolerated".

"This year there were 500 suspicious incidents in Europe. Up to 100 of them can be attributed to Russian hybrid attacks, espionage, influence operations," Lipavsky told reporters.

The issue of Russian hybrid threats was one of the main topics discussed during the two-day meeting of the NATO alliance in Brussels, which concluded on Wednesday.

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said that "both Russia and China have tried to destabilise our countries and divide our societies with acts of sabotage, cyber-attacks, and energy blackmail".

Rutte added that the block agreed on a set of measures to counter "Russia's hostile and cyber activities, including enhanced intelligence exchange, more exercises, better protection of critical infrastructure and improved cyber defence.