Shocking! Has Russia planted sleeper explosives on critical infrastructure in Britain's North Sea?
On Thursday, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace also warned Russia has the 'intent and ability' to sabotage the UK's underwater energy and communication lines. "Russia have a specific naval programme designed to both look at and potentially sabotage or attack critical national infrastructure belonging to its adversaries," Wallace said.
FollowFormer Royal Navy head has warned that Russia may have already put sleeper explosives on critical infrastructure in Britain's North Sea. It is reportedly said that Admiral Lord West warned offshore windfarms and undersea cables are at risk of attack as fears grow that Putin could wipe out the UK's power supply and cut off its telecommunications infrastructure.
Speaking to a news organisation, the former Royal Navy chief said, "There's a risk as soon as you put critical infrastructure on the seabed," adding that the Kremlin 'may have already put down sleeper explosives'.
Admiral Lord West's warning's come after Russian ships were spotted stalking UK waters earlier this month.Â
On Thursday, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace also warned Russia has the 'intent and ability' to sabotage the UK's underwater energy and communication lines. "Russia have a specific naval programme designed to both look at and potentially sabotage or attack critical national infrastructure belonging to its adversaries," Wallace said.
Earlier, experts had warned that Russian attacks on wind farms and undersea cables could lead to riots and civil unrest in Britain. Dr Dwayne Ryan Menezes, of the Polar Research and Policy Initiative, said an attack on the UK's critical infrastructure could "cause internet outages and power blackouts".
"As damage to cables can take days or weeks to fix, it could even lead to potential civil unrest and riots," Dr Menezes said.
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"Any damage to the UK's critical infrastructure could also cost billions to fix," he warned, as he noted electricity and communications blackouts would hit the UK economy. Russia's underwater threat is nothing new, and researchers have been warning about potential sabotage attacks since at least 2015.
Back then, the main concern was undersea internet cables, through which 95 percent of the world's internet traffic and $10trillion of financial transactions pass every day.
In 2017, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, then a backbench MP, wrote a report warning of the 'existential' threat faced by the UK in the event of a coordinated attack on these cables, most of which are no thicker than a hosepipe.
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