7 ms·

Young journalists expose Russian-linked vessels off the Dutch and German coast

149 points by harshreality 10mo ago

RamblingCTO 10mo ago
This just shows how amateurish the German state apparatus is when it comes to things like this. Maybe they're playing a game one level deeper and show them only what they want the Russians to see or see it as inevitable, I don't know. But I don't have high trust in our defense.
- flohofwoe 10mo ago
  From the article: --- European intelligence services assess the three documented ships as operating “with high confidence“ on behalf of Russian interests. Their movement profiles are “very conspicuous” and show “little evidence of commercial activity.” --- ...of course they know, but for whatever reason they didn't find a smoking gun so far (e.g. drones on the ships or drones taking off/landing) - or maybe they did but keep it to themselves. > Official inspections were “symbolic”—not all containers opened ...this might to be the core of the problem.
  - roflmaostc 10mo ago
    > or maybe they did but keep it to themselves. Yes agree. There is no incentive that intelligence services would communicate their findings, in fact it's the opposite lol
  - mytailorisrich 10mo ago
    Of course European countries' intelligence and military know about this. The question we should ask ourselves is why they let it happen... My take is that the "Russian scare" serves the EU's agenda. You'll notice how European leaders and the EU are stroking fear at every opportunity.
    - flohofwoe 10mo ago
      Eh, no matter what is done about the drones there would be people who complain about 'fear- and war-mongering', and most likely it would be the exact same people who now complain that the government is 'letting this happen' ;) Imagine the German military would shoot those drones down over Germany, the self-proclaimed 'pacifists' would be all about 'escalation', 'war-mongering' and 'militarization'. There are clear and very restrictive rules what the military and police are allowed and not allowed to do in cilivized countries, and those restrictions are in general a good thing and shouldn't be changed on a whim.
      - mytailorisrich 10mo ago
        > the self-proclaimed 'pacifists' would be all about 'escalation', 'war-mongering' and 'militarization'. They have a right to protest and the government is free to ignore them and do its job. This is not a serious argument and the kip about "civilized countries" is ridiculous, frankly. Drones don't fly from Russia. They are launched more locally. The vessels mentioned in this article could be taken over by special forces today if the neighbouring governments decided to. So again why don't they? I can't find any sensible answer to that apart from "because they are useful".
        flohofwoe 10mo ago
        I don't know if they can seize those vessels - I'm no maritime law expert, but just to give you an idea how tricky the legal topic can become once a vessel is seized: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/german-court-blocks-authorities-selling-suspected-russian-oil-tanker-cargo-2025-12-11/ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/german-court-blocks-... We're now basically stuck with an old Russian shadow-fleet rust-bucket anchored at our coast which we cannot get rid of.
        mytailorisrich 10mo ago
        Of course they can. This is military in international waters, you can do what you want and worry about being sued by whomever later (good luck with that). The French special forces took over an oil tanker and brought it to France no later than October [1]. Again, trying to find too many excuses why it is not possible usually indicates that in reality they don't want to for whatever reasons (alreayd mentioned my theory). Or ask the French to do it as they seem to at least have a working defense chain of command... Generally, whatever happens, or not happens, in those situations has been decided, and we should never take any public narratives at face value. [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2j1gynjddo https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2j1gynjddo
- jillesvangurp 10mo ago
  This is not just a German topic (several NATO countries had drone sightings) but a NATO topic. And probably also a US topic (some 'alien' activity recently). And you are forgetting that there are still US troops in Germany. The US is not some passive bystander in this conflict but a very active part of the decision process here. And given that some of those military installations probably have US military in them, it's very much a topic that concerns them. I don't think anyone believes an attack is imminent. But that kind of intelligence gathering is a pretty serious breach of security. This weakness is a NATO wide problem and you can't ignore the role of the US in this apparent weakness. It's apparently pushing for de-escalation rather than further escalation. I think we'd know of Trump felt strongly about this. He'd be tweeting about this. His silence on this is suggestive.
kleiba 10mo ago
I don't know to what degree this is known to people outside Europe, but has been on the news over here for the last few months: > drones aren’t just buzzing airports. They’re systematically surveilling military installations—often during sensitive operations Now, if you live in the US or anywhere else outside Europe - please pause for a moment and see how it makes you feel to imagine having Russian drones hover over your military installations regularly, or other important places of your public infrastructure.
- D_Alex 10mo ago
  Ramstein is like 400 km from the sea, Munich is 800 km. I am puzzled that the alleged ship-launched drone swarms were allegedly able to penetrate this far undetected.
- TheChaplain 10mo ago
  There are plenty of people even inside Europe who downplay these events.
  - GuestFAUniverse 10mo ago
    Often enough that coincidences with an unexplainable increase of wealth.
  - jwr 10mo ago
    As someone who currently lives in Poland, I hope this will be a wakeup call for Western Europe, which has so far been living a medieval dream of "the aggressor is far away and there are countries between us and the aggressor, so we can carry on as usual". That used to be a valid assumption several hundred years ago, but now no longer holds. I hope the lukewarm support for Ukraine will become at least a bit stronger. And I really hope the EU will stop funding the Russian military machine. Not everyone realizes this, but just in October 2025, the five largest EU importers of Russian fossil fuels paid Russia nearly 1 billion €. ONE BILLION EUR per month. Compare that to the military aid we are sending to Ukraine. (source: https://energyandcleanair.org/october-2025-monthly-analysis-of-russian-fossil-fuel-exports-and-sanctions/ https://energyandcleanair.org/october-2025-monthly-analysis-...)
shermozle 10mo ago
These young journos are legends.
derelicta 10mo ago
[flagged]
paganel 10mo ago
[flagged]
- TheChaplain 10mo ago
  I don't know, the solution to that seems fairly simple, no? Russia withdraws to pre-2014 borders.
nephihaha 10mo ago
A lot of these drone scares remind me of UFO flaps. There was one over London Gatwick not long ago and no one ever managed to photograph the thing as far as I can remember. I'm sure NATO has drone swarms all over Russian bases right now, but that's the bit they miss. Part of a long tradition of trying out each other's defences.
- sam_lowry_ 10mo ago
  NATO has satellites and spies. Why would they need to use drones? Russia OTOH has an aging fleet of spy satellites, and drones serve to intimidate as much as gather intelligence.
  - deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]
  - jeroenhd 10mo ago
    Does NATO have satellites, or do the Americans? With the recent threats to the ICC and more and more American politicians turning against NATO, it's getting quite hard to take American NATO membership seriously. However, I doubt the drones are part of any kind of spying operation. They're trivially detectable, have limited range, and I very much doubt these journalists found anything that European intelligence agencies haven't found already. If the Russians want to map out European bases, they can just look at the data leaked by Fitbit/Strava and "data broker" companies. Instead, I firmly believe this is a power move intended to spread fear. They're saying "look at what we're capable of", and _maybe_ measuring anti-drone response strategies, but any competent military wouldn't let themselves get baited into showing their hand too much. The Dutch army has stated that there's no need to panic and that the anti drone measures we currently have is perfectly capable of taking action if necessary. Russia showing off their capabilities is hardly news, either. Russia likes taunting its enemies by flying fighter jets and sending nuclear subs through shipping channels. The same way America likes to send war ships through shipping lanes in Asia, and during the cold war by flying spy planes awfully close to borders.
- blitzar 10mo ago
  > I'm sure NATO has drone swarms all over Russian bases right now I'm pretty sure NATO doesnt have drone swarms all over Russian territory right now.
ktallett 10mo ago
I don't read every news source internationally however I always wonder just how often UK, German, US linked vessels, drones, etc are found within close proximity of Russia/China/Iran and how often they get reported.
- flohofwoe 10mo ago
  If the same thing would happen to Russia you can be sure that Medvedev and Peskov would whine about it for months, including the occasional nuclear annihilation threat towards the 'collective West'.
  - deleted 10mo ago
    [deleted]
- Protostome 10mo ago
  Authoritarian regimes don’t act aggressively because they’re provoked; they act aggressively because projecting power and testing limits is part of how they survive internally. History is full of cases where no meaningful provocation existed at all. Nazi Germany didn’t need Allied ships near its coast to invade Poland. Saddam Hussein didn’t need US aircraft nearby to invade Kuwait. Argentina didn’t need British naval pressure to seize the Falklands. Russia didn’t need NATO forces near Kyiv to annex Crimea in 2014 or launch a full invasion in 2022. Tyrannies tend to frame any foreign presence as “provocation” after the fact, because it’s politically useful at home. Liberal democracies publish their movements precisely because they operate under scrutiny; authoritarian states act first and justify later. Proximity makes for a convenient narrative, not a causal explanation.
  - ktallett 10mo ago
    When I think of liberal democracies, I am thinking of places like Estonia, I am not including the current US, UK, and Germany in liberal democracies, Considering the current state in every single one and the recent cases for spying on their own citizens illegally I sincerely doubt they are publishing openly.
cs02rm0 10mo ago
Neat. Amazes me that the Russians always seem to have the capacity for this sort of, I can't think of a clean word, let's inadequately say gamesmanship. When I'd have thought they have enough on their plate in Ukraine.
- yread 10mo ago
  Apparently not. They did just drilled missile launches on Tokyo with the Chinese https://nitter.net/avivector/status/1998516670399152245#m https://nitter.net/avivector/status/1998516670399152245#m
- zelphirkalt 10mo ago
  Anything necessary to keep up the sharades and appearance. He likes to play in the league of the big. Let's see for how long, until more cracks start showing up.
- tim333 10mo ago
  They have a strange attitude to the world and have had government funded people dedicated to attacking much of the world for decades. See this book review: >“This must be the essence of our greatness. . . enemies everywhere” (p.20). The central thesis of Russia’s War on Everybody is that the Kremlin defines its enemies sweepingly, such that only a fraction of these “enemies” consider Russia to be their enemy. As Giles documents, “the Kremlin’s daily business” includes what some in the West would consider “acts of war” – poisoning dissidents, shooting down planes, election meddling, cyberattacks, and blatant political assassinations. Giles describes the Kremlin’s zero-sum worldview, in which anything benefitting others is a threat to Russia, and demonstrates that the Kremlin’s ambitions are far broader, and its methods more pervasive, than most realise. https://www.e-ir.info/2025/11/18/review-russias-war-on-everybody/ https://www.e-ir.info/2025/11/18/review-russias-war-on-every...
GuestFAUniverse 10mo ago
[flagged]
flanked-evergl 10mo ago
There is a massive anti-western infiltration operation being driven by Russia and it's allies, like Iran, Qatar and China. The biggest tragedy of the Russia-Russia hoax of Trumps first term is that people have become numb to something which was not really happening, but now is happening at an unprecedented scale. I can only really speak for the media in Norway, but they spend almost no time covering this anymore and instead just print partisan American political things as if we are the 51st state and also a deep blue state. The media in Western Europe needs to stop acting like this, and start focusing on Europe and our challenges. Just another example of the total insanity of Western Europe is that there is some expectation that USA will defend Europe when the majority of people in almost every single western European country has no interest in defending themselves. People expect US to send troops when there is no political support in any western European country to send troops. I love Europe, it's my home, but that is also why I don't think it's helpful to ignore the truth. Europe is the sick and dying man of the world. We need to turn this around.
- tim333 10mo ago
  The "Russia-Russia hoax" wasn't that hoaxy. Form Wikipedia on the Muller report: >The report states that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was illegal and occurred "in sweeping and systematic fashion", and was welcomed by the Trump campaign as it expected to benefit from such efforts. It also identifies multiple links between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. I guess the US people just decided they were ok with a Russian backed president? Europe is the sick and dying man is maybe overstating things. They've been understandably a bit anti-war following the centuries of war culminating in WW2.
  - flanked-evergl 10mo ago
    I guess the Europeans have to ask themselves if they are okay being entirely useless and always crying to daddy USA when the Russians push their shit in while also crying that daddy USA is not kind enough to them. It's honestly pathetic and I don't want this anymore. We either need to squash Russia like the toxic vermin it is, or accept that we are too useless to even do that.
secult 10mo ago
Good job! OSINT rules. And regarding drones, surely any state actor may be doing this, however doing surveillance by drones over military bases is just so noob. That just points out they don't have a capacity to do reconnaissance with satellites, or they are doing something completely different. Probably making sure the target knows someone is watching, saying "We know where you have your sensitive spots".
- adammarples 10mo ago
  They don't need satellites, they can surveil us close up with £200 drones and we don't do anything about it. It's like the story about the astronaut and the pencil.
juliusceasar 10mo ago
Unfortunately Dutch MP Geert Wilders from PVV and German AfD are acting like Putin's puppet. Both are still defending the action of Russia and blaming the EU and NATO for the Russian aggression.
- sam_lowry_ 10mo ago
  Even after Malaysia_Airlines Flight 17 [1]? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17
  - tgv 10mo ago
    Wilders received a Russia-Netherlands friendship pin, and posted the picture of him posing with it (in the Duma, IIRC) on this twitter account on Mar 1, 2018.
- littlecranky67 10mo ago
  It is at least 50% NATOs fault. Mexico and Canada are democratic and sovereign nations, but if either would decide to allow chinese or russian military bases to be built in their country, you can safely asume the US would not hesitate to brake international laws and take military actions on those sovereign countries. NATO expanded closer and closer to russias border, and you can't just expect for Russia to be okay with that, just as the US wouldn't be okay with that.
  - juliusceasar 10mo ago
    NATO didn't expand, those countries DECIDED to join. Why? Because they have lived under the cruelty of Russian aggression. Just like countries DECIDE to join the EU and not the Warshaw pact. But, I see that Russian propaganda is doing its job.
    - littlecranky67 10mo ago
      My point is, Mexico and Canada could DECIDE to become allies of China and Russia. And then you would see the very same, how the US doesn't give a s** about their free decisions and invades.
egorfine 10mo ago
Unfortunately this is not going to make a dent in the current policies. First of all, russia surveying military bases with drones, really? What else is new? Second, currently there is no way to shoot drones in EU due to variety of bullshit legal reasons. So this article will change nothing. russia will continue blocking airports and EU won't do anything about it.
- davedx 10mo ago
  > currently there is no way to shoot drones in EU due to variety of bullshit legal reasons Citation?
  - blitzar 10mo ago
    bullshit citation reasons
  - littlecranky67 10mo ago
    Literally any news media in the EU in the last 4 weeks. Drone sightings everywhere, action equals none.
  - lnsru 10mo ago
    Statistics! Nobody took any action during hundreds of drone incidents in many countries.
- codeduck 10mo ago
  Germany has passed legislation to permit the police and I believe the Bundeswehr to shoot down or disable unauthorised drones. Denmark is also (I believe) looking into this. I suspect that over the next year more and more EU countries will follow suit.
  - egorfine 10mo ago
    There could be years between looking into it and passing a legislation. There could be years between passing a legislation and actually shooting drones. It's EU, we won't do shit until the comprehensive environmental impact study is finished. But we are slowly waking up.
pacifika 10mo ago
How trustworthy is a medium/ substance article versus a reputable newspaper?

149 points by harshreality 10mo ago

This just shows how amateurish the German state apparatus is when it comes to things like this. Maybe they're playing a game one level deeper and show them only what they want the Russians to see or see it as inevitable, I don't know. But I don't have high trust in our defense.

flohofwoe 10mo ago
From the article: --- European intelligence services assess the three documented ships as operating “with high confidence“ on behalf of Russian interests. Their movement profiles are “very conspicuous” and show “little evidence of commercial activity.” --- ...of course they know, but for whatever reason they didn't find a smoking gun so far (e.g. drones on the ships or drones taking off/landing) - or maybe they did but keep it to themselves. > Official inspections were “symbolic”—not all containers opened ...this might to be the core of the problem.
- roflmaostc 10mo ago
  > or maybe they did but keep it to themselves. Yes agree. There is no incentive that intelligence services would communicate their findings, in fact it's the opposite lol
- mytailorisrich 10mo ago
  Of course European countries' intelligence and military know about this. The question we should ask ourselves is why they let it happen... My take is that the "Russian scare" serves the EU's agenda. You'll notice how European leaders and the EU are stroking fear at every opportunity.
  - flohofwoe 10mo ago
    Eh, no matter what is done about the drones there would be people who complain about 'fear- and war-mongering', and most likely it would be the exact same people who now complain that the government is 'letting this happen' ;) Imagine the German military would shoot those drones down over Germany, the self-proclaimed 'pacifists' would be all about 'escalation', 'war-mongering' and 'militarization'. There are clear and very restrictive rules what the military and police are allowed and not allowed to do in cilivized countries, and those restrictions are in general a good thing and shouldn't be changed on a whim.
    - mytailorisrich 10mo ago
      > the self-proclaimed 'pacifists' would be all about 'escalation', 'war-mongering' and 'militarization'. They have a right to protest and the government is free to ignore them and do its job. This is not a serious argument and the kip about "civilized countries" is ridiculous, frankly. Drones don't fly from Russia. They are launched more locally. The vessels mentioned in this article could be taken over by special forces today if the neighbouring governments decided to. So again why don't they? I can't find any sensible answer to that apart from "because they are useful".
      - flohofwoe 10mo ago
        I don't know if they can seize those vessels - I'm no maritime law expert, but just to give you an idea how tricky the legal topic can become once a vessel is seized: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/german-court-blocks-authorities-selling-suspected-russian-oil-tanker-cargo-2025-12-11/ https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/german-court-blocks-... We're now basically stuck with an old Russian shadow-fleet rust-bucket anchored at our coast which we cannot get rid of.
        mytailorisrich 10mo ago
        Of course they can. This is military in international waters, you can do what you want and worry about being sued by whomever later (good luck with that). The French special forces took over an oil tanker and brought it to France no later than October [1]. Again, trying to find too many excuses why it is not possible usually indicates that in reality they don't want to for whatever reasons (alreayd mentioned my theory). Or ask the French to do it as they seem to at least have a working defense chain of command... Generally, whatever happens, or not happens, in those situations has been decided, and we should never take any public narratives at face value. [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2j1gynjddo https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2j1gynjddo
jillesvangurp 10mo ago
This is not just a German topic (several NATO countries had drone sightings) but a NATO topic. And probably also a US topic (some 'alien' activity recently). And you are forgetting that there are still US troops in Germany. The US is not some passive bystander in this conflict but a very active part of the decision process here. And given that some of those military installations probably have US military in them, it's very much a topic that concerns them. I don't think anyone believes an attack is imminent. But that kind of intelligence gathering is a pretty serious breach of security. This weakness is a NATO wide problem and you can't ignore the role of the US in this apparent weakness. It's apparently pushing for de-escalation rather than further escalation. I think we'd know of Trump felt strongly about this. He'd be tweeting about this. His silence on this is suggestive.

kleiba 10mo ago

I don't know to what degree this is known to people outside Europe, but has been on the news over here for the last few months: > drones aren’t just buzzing airports. They’re systematically surveilling military installations—often during sensitive operations Now, if you live in the US or anywhere else outside Europe - please pause for a moment and see how it makes you feel to imagine having Russian drones hover over your military installations regularly, or other important places of your public infrastructure.

D_Alex 10mo ago
Ramstein is like 400 km from the sea, Munich is 800 km. I am puzzled that the alleged ship-launched drone swarms were allegedly able to penetrate this far undetected.
TheChaplain 10mo ago
There are plenty of people even inside Europe who downplay these events.
- GuestFAUniverse 10mo ago
  Often enough that coincidences with an unexplainable increase of wealth.
- jwr 10mo ago
  As someone who currently lives in Poland, I hope this will be a wakeup call for Western Europe, which has so far been living a medieval dream of "the aggressor is far away and there are countries between us and the aggressor, so we can carry on as usual". That used to be a valid assumption several hundred years ago, but now no longer holds. I hope the lukewarm support for Ukraine will become at least a bit stronger. And I really hope the EU will stop funding the Russian military machine. Not everyone realizes this, but just in October 2025, the five largest EU importers of Russian fossil fuels paid Russia nearly 1 billion €. ONE BILLION EUR per month. Compare that to the military aid we are sending to Ukraine. (source: https://energyandcleanair.org/october-2025-monthly-analysis-of-russian-fossil-fuel-exports-and-sanctions/ https://energyandcleanair.org/october-2025-monthly-analysis-...)

shermozle 10mo ago

These young journos are legends.

derelicta 10mo ago

[flagged]

paganel 10mo ago

[flagged]

TheChaplain 10mo ago
I don't know, the solution to that seems fairly simple, no? Russia withdraws to pre-2014 borders.

nephihaha 10mo ago

A lot of these drone scares remind me of UFO flaps. There was one over London Gatwick not long ago and no one ever managed to photograph the thing as far as I can remember. I'm sure NATO has drone swarms all over Russian bases right now, but that's the bit they miss. Part of a long tradition of trying out each other's defences.

sam_lowry_ 10mo ago
NATO has satellites and spies. Why would they need to use drones? Russia OTOH has an aging fleet of spy satellites, and drones serve to intimidate as much as gather intelligence.
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
- jeroenhd 10mo ago
  Does NATO have satellites, or do the Americans? With the recent threats to the ICC and more and more American politicians turning against NATO, it's getting quite hard to take American NATO membership seriously. However, I doubt the drones are part of any kind of spying operation. They're trivially detectable, have limited range, and I very much doubt these journalists found anything that European intelligence agencies haven't found already. If the Russians want to map out European bases, they can just look at the data leaked by Fitbit/Strava and "data broker" companies. Instead, I firmly believe this is a power move intended to spread fear. They're saying "look at what we're capable of", and _maybe_ measuring anti-drone response strategies, but any competent military wouldn't let themselves get baited into showing their hand too much. The Dutch army has stated that there's no need to panic and that the anti drone measures we currently have is perfectly capable of taking action if necessary. Russia showing off their capabilities is hardly news, either. Russia likes taunting its enemies by flying fighter jets and sending nuclear subs through shipping channels. The same way America likes to send war ships through shipping lanes in Asia, and during the cold war by flying spy planes awfully close to borders.
blitzar 10mo ago
> I'm sure NATO has drone swarms all over Russian bases right now I'm pretty sure NATO doesnt have drone swarms all over Russian territory right now.

ktallett 10mo ago

I don't read every news source internationally however I always wonder just how often UK, German, US linked vessels, drones, etc are found within close proximity of Russia/China/Iran and how often they get reported.

flohofwoe 10mo ago
If the same thing would happen to Russia you can be sure that Medvedev and Peskov would whine about it for months, including the occasional nuclear annihilation threat towards the 'collective West'.
- deleted 10mo ago
  [deleted]
Protostome 10mo ago
Authoritarian regimes don’t act aggressively because they’re provoked; they act aggressively because projecting power and testing limits is part of how they survive internally. History is full of cases where no meaningful provocation existed at all. Nazi Germany didn’t need Allied ships near its coast to invade Poland. Saddam Hussein didn’t need US aircraft nearby to invade Kuwait. Argentina didn’t need British naval pressure to seize the Falklands. Russia didn’t need NATO forces near Kyiv to annex Crimea in 2014 or launch a full invasion in 2022. Tyrannies tend to frame any foreign presence as “provocation” after the fact, because it’s politically useful at home. Liberal democracies publish their movements precisely because they operate under scrutiny; authoritarian states act first and justify later. Proximity makes for a convenient narrative, not a causal explanation.
- ktallett 10mo ago
  When I think of liberal democracies, I am thinking of places like Estonia, I am not including the current US, UK, and Germany in liberal democracies, Considering the current state in every single one and the recent cases for spying on their own citizens illegally I sincerely doubt they are publishing openly.

cs02rm0 10mo ago

Neat. Amazes me that the Russians always seem to have the capacity for this sort of, I can't think of a clean word, let's inadequately say gamesmanship. When I'd have thought they have enough on their plate in Ukraine.

yread 10mo ago
Apparently not. They did just drilled missile launches on Tokyo with the Chinese https://nitter.net/avivector/status/1998516670399152245#m https://nitter.net/avivector/status/1998516670399152245#m
zelphirkalt 10mo ago
Anything necessary to keep up the sharades and appearance. He likes to play in the league of the big. Let's see for how long, until more cracks start showing up.
tim333 10mo ago
They have a strange attitude to the world and have had government funded people dedicated to attacking much of the world for decades. See this book review: >“This must be the essence of our greatness. . . enemies everywhere” (p.20). The central thesis of Russia’s War on Everybody is that the Kremlin defines its enemies sweepingly, such that only a fraction of these “enemies” consider Russia to be their enemy. As Giles documents, “the Kremlin’s daily business” includes what some in the West would consider “acts of war” – poisoning dissidents, shooting down planes, election meddling, cyberattacks, and blatant political assassinations. Giles describes the Kremlin’s zero-sum worldview, in which anything benefitting others is a threat to Russia, and demonstrates that the Kremlin’s ambitions are far broader, and its methods more pervasive, than most realise. https://www.e-ir.info/2025/11/18/review-russias-war-on-everybody/ https://www.e-ir.info/2025/11/18/review-russias-war-on-every...

GuestFAUniverse 10mo ago

[flagged]

flanked-evergl 10mo ago

There is a massive anti-western infiltration operation being driven by Russia and it's allies, like Iran, Qatar and China. The biggest tragedy of the Russia-Russia hoax of Trumps first term is that people have become numb to something which was not really happening, but now is happening at an unprecedented scale. I can only really speak for the media in Norway, but they spend almost no time covering this anymore and instead just print partisan American political things as if we are the 51st state and also a deep blue state. The media in Western Europe needs to stop acting like this, and start focusing on Europe and our challenges. Just another example of the total insanity of Western Europe is that there is some expectation that USA will defend Europe when the majority of people in almost every single western European country has no interest in defending themselves. People expect US to send troops when there is no political support in any western European country to send troops. I love Europe, it's my home, but that is also why I don't think it's helpful to ignore the truth. Europe is the sick and dying man of the world. We need to turn this around.

tim333 10mo ago
The "Russia-Russia hoax" wasn't that hoaxy. Form Wikipedia on the Muller report: >The report states that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was illegal and occurred "in sweeping and systematic fashion", and was welcomed by the Trump campaign as it expected to benefit from such efforts. It also identifies multiple links between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. I guess the US people just decided they were ok with a Russian backed president? Europe is the sick and dying man is maybe overstating things. They've been understandably a bit anti-war following the centuries of war culminating in WW2.
- flanked-evergl 10mo ago
  I guess the Europeans have to ask themselves if they are okay being entirely useless and always crying to daddy USA when the Russians push their shit in while also crying that daddy USA is not kind enough to them. It's honestly pathetic and I don't want this anymore. We either need to squash Russia like the toxic vermin it is, or accept that we are too useless to even do that.

secult 10mo ago

Good job! OSINT rules. And regarding drones, surely any state actor may be doing this, however doing surveillance by drones over military bases is just so noob. That just points out they don't have a capacity to do reconnaissance with satellites, or they are doing something completely different. Probably making sure the target knows someone is watching, saying "We know where you have your sensitive spots".

adammarples 10mo ago
They don't need satellites, they can surveil us close up with £200 drones and we don't do anything about it. It's like the story about the astronaut and the pencil.

juliusceasar 10mo ago

Unfortunately Dutch MP Geert Wilders from PVV and German AfD are acting like Putin's puppet. Both are still defending the action of Russia and blaming the EU and NATO for the Russian aggression.

sam_lowry_ 10mo ago
Even after Malaysia_Airlines Flight 17 [1]? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17
- tgv 10mo ago
  Wilders received a Russia-Netherlands friendship pin, and posted the picture of him posing with it (in the Duma, IIRC) on this twitter account on Mar 1, 2018.
littlecranky67 10mo ago
It is at least 50% NATOs fault. Mexico and Canada are democratic and sovereign nations, but if either would decide to allow chinese or russian military bases to be built in their country, you can safely asume the US would not hesitate to brake international laws and take military actions on those sovereign countries. NATO expanded closer and closer to russias border, and you can't just expect for Russia to be okay with that, just as the US wouldn't be okay with that.
- juliusceasar 10mo ago
  NATO didn't expand, those countries DECIDED to join. Why? Because they have lived under the cruelty of Russian aggression. Just like countries DECIDE to join the EU and not the Warshaw pact. But, I see that Russian propaganda is doing its job.
  - littlecranky67 10mo ago
    My point is, Mexico and Canada could DECIDE to become allies of China and Russia. And then you would see the very same, how the US doesn't give a s** about their free decisions and invades.

egorfine 10mo ago

Unfortunately this is not going to make a dent in the current policies. First of all, russia surveying military bases with drones, really? What else is new? Second, currently there is no way to shoot drones in EU due to variety of bullshit legal reasons. So this article will change nothing. russia will continue blocking airports and EU won't do anything about it.

davedx 10mo ago
> currently there is no way to shoot drones in EU due to variety of bullshit legal reasons Citation?
- blitzar 10mo ago
  bullshit citation reasons
- littlecranky67 10mo ago
  Literally any news media in the EU in the last 4 weeks. Drone sightings everywhere, action equals none.
- lnsru 10mo ago
  Statistics! Nobody took any action during hundreds of drone incidents in many countries.
codeduck 10mo ago
Germany has passed legislation to permit the police and I believe the Bundeswehr to shoot down or disable unauthorised drones. Denmark is also (I believe) looking into this. I suspect that over the next year more and more EU countries will follow suit.
- egorfine 10mo ago
  There could be years between looking into it and passing a legislation. There could be years between passing a legislation and actually shooting drones. It's EU, we won't do shit until the comprehensive environmental impact study is finished. But we are slowly waking up.

pacifika 10mo ago

How trustworthy is a medium/ substance article versus a reputable newspaper?