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Just days after a similar (criminal) incident causing a train to derail in France: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/09/12/french-police-suspect-tra

by apt-get 19d ago

Just days after a similar (criminal) incident causing a train to derail in France: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/09/12/french-police-suspect-train-derailment-was-sabotage_6757446_7.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/09/12/french-p... "close to Renault's factory in the town of Cléon", which is now preparing to start manufacturing drones for the French military, in collaboration with Ukrainian military-industrial groups.

walrus01 19d ago
Most consumers know Renault as an ordinary car manufacturer but also worth mentioning it's a major manufacturer of armored vehicles for the French armed forces.
- calgoo 19d ago
  Just Like Saab in Sweden, except Saab dont sell any cars anymore unfortunately.
puttycat 19d ago
Yes. And in combination it completely rules out the suggestion that the Netherlands attack is some kind of local activist protest. (The France attack resulted in several grave injuries and could have just as easily resulted in dozens of deaths.)
- pasquinelli 19d ago
  that's a huge leap
  - nmeofthestate 19d ago
    We should see some claim of responsibility if it was indeed anyone other than the usual suspects.
    - IAmBroom 19d ago
      Why? Russia gains nothing from taking responsibility.
      - nmeofthestate 19d ago
        No I agree with that, but if it's "activists" I would expect them to claim credit otherwise it's all pointless. The same doesn't follow for Russian fuckery, IMO.
Someone 19d ago
> Just days after a similar (criminal) incident causing a train to derail in France From what I read, the similarity ends in “both involved trains”. This chain of attacks seems to have used short metal pipes (“Footage published by Dutch public broadcaster NOS on Tuesday showed police carrying what appeared to be metal pipes - about 1.5 metres (5ft) long”) to short a connection, making safety systems signal “there’s a train there”, stopping trains further up the track. The France incident involved a piece of rails heavy enough to cause derailment (“The rail fragment was estimated to weigh between 250 and 300 kilograms”) My money is on this being a rogue farmers protest.
- rwyinuse 19d ago
  Could be also rogue farmers paid by Russia. Easiest way for Russia to cause havoc in Europe is through exploiting existing political issues.
  - ajsnigrutin 19d ago
    The easiest way to hide the incompetence of local european politics, be it expensive diesel or the upcoming economic prices is to blame it all on russia. Volkswagen is laying off 100k of workers, because they can't make cars people can afford anymore... blame russia! Germans fed up with merz and vote afd? Russia! Macron doesn't even have 20% of support in polls anymore? Russia! Stub your pinky on the corner of the bed? russia!
    - galangalalgol 19d ago
      It seems unlikely they would let any political divisions or legitimate grievances go unexploited. It is their cultural core competency for centuries. That does not mean the greivances being exploited aren't valid, or that the parties themselves don't aid in the fracture so they don't have to worry about competition with parties whose ideology is too close to theirs. Edit: This is reductive, Russia has tons of culture besides this trait, but it is the fundamental strategy that allowed a landlocked state with no natural borders to survive and expand. When you learn a strategy to survive or cope with adversity, it sticks long after it is beneficial.
peri-cl 19d ago
I don't think they look similar, the synchronicity notwithstanding. The sabotage in France was a 250–300 kg rail fragment (per your link). The objects in the Netherlands look much smaller, and look like they're intended to short-circuit two rails to trigger a signal fault. In one place they found car jumper cables with clamps attached to both rails, https://nos.nl/video/2631081-startkabels-van-spoor-bij-meppel-weggehaald https://nos.nl/video/2631081-startkabels-van-spoor-bij-meppe... ("Startkabels van spoor bij Meppel weggehaald")
- apt-get 19d ago
  Not asserting this is definitely a Russian op (given the amount of simultaneous farmers' protests and all in NL today), but their modus operandi for foreign operations of this kind involves paying random thugs a few hundred to a couple thousand euros to carry out acts of sabotage using whatever items they have on hand. The items don't need to match, the people involved don't need to know each other.
  - sandos 19d ago
    Exactly this, and also they are trying to keep some deniability here, so variations are good.
    - hgomersall 19d ago
      Why would you want to keep it deniable? What's the point in this sort of sabotage if nobody knows you did it?
      - grim_io 19d ago
        Russia is trying to avoid retaliation through stricter sanctions, for example.
      - ChrisMarshallNY 19d ago
        They seem to be very good at "mob tactics." No one can prove anything, for example, but anyone knows that people that piss Putin off, need to stay away from windows in high places.
aaron695 19d ago
[dead]
paganel 19d ago
[flagged]
- pjc50 19d ago
  Really Western Europe has been ignoring Russia's war for far too long; the MH17 shootdown was in 2014 and the situation has only deteriorated since then.
  - DrScientist 19d ago
    Not sure how MH17 shooting is relevant here. While the consensus is that it's likely a Russia controlled/allied battery shot it down - I'm not sure anybody thinks it was anything other than an accident, not an intentional act of sabotage.
    - mcphage 19d ago
      > I'm not sure anybody thinks it was anything other than an accident How do you accidentally shoot down a passenger airplane?
      - anonymars 19d ago
        By shooting at or thinking it is something other than a passenger airplane?
    - account42 19d ago
      If it was a Russian weapon (which is the most likely explanation) then it was the result of them meddling where they shouldn't be - either by supplying separatists with military equipment or by being there themselves, i.e. a part of their ongoing expansionist campaign in Ukraine.
      - throwaway85825 19d ago
        It was a part of the active Russian military. SAM operators don't grow on trees.
misja111 19d ago
Surely there is a lot of Russian-motivated sabotage going on in Europe, but there's another group that might be motivated: exactly today, a major farmer demonstration was already planned. They way they usually go ahead in the Netherlands is drive with their tractors over the highways towards The Hague, where our government is based. Obviously this leads to massive traffic jams. A simultaneous disruption of the Dutch railways would add some extra effect to the expected traffic chaos.
- redog 19d ago
  Or the other group, instead of actually being motivated are being influenced by the those who would benefit even more from the distribution of chaos.
- consp 19d ago
  Quite easy to go from a misdemeanor to terrorism charge if you sabotage the train network. IMHO likely those ** farmers causing insane amounts of damage while getting a slap on the wrist every time, that has to end. At least the climate activists only block one highway which you can work around. Unless it turns out it's them. Then they need be treated the same but it's not their MO.
rasz 19d ago
Last week we had four train-truck collisions at Polish level crossings resulting in derailment and passenger death, and afaik 2 or 3 involved foreign truck drivers.
TacticalCoder 19d ago
Leaving aside the irony in seeing the "peaceful" EU (who bet it all on Uncle Sam) now going on full warmongering and wanting to spend 3% of its GDP on warfare, the serious issue here is the lack of will of politicians to punish the authors of such acts, which ruin society for everybody. 44 person injured and a young woman between life and death. Yet when the perpetrators are caught, we'll have journalists and judges relaying the official tune of the EU: "criminals are victims too". They'll get a slap on the wrist and be able to ruin society again in no time. When shall the left accept that people putting 300 kilograms of rails to try to kill people has only one solution: shackles and a heavy ball? Where do you draw the line between "we're all beautiful butterflies" and "some psychos need to be scruffed by the neck and bowed into lifetime submission"? How many deaths?

by apt-get 19d ago

walrus01 19d ago

Most consumers know Renault as an ordinary car manufacturer but also worth mentioning it's a major manufacturer of armored vehicles for the French armed forces.

calgoo 19d ago
Just Like Saab in Sweden, except Saab dont sell any cars anymore unfortunately.

puttycat 19d ago

Yes. And in combination it completely rules out the suggestion that the Netherlands attack is some kind of local activist protest. (The France attack resulted in several grave injuries and could have just as easily resulted in dozens of deaths.)

pasquinelli 19d ago
that's a huge leap
- nmeofthestate 19d ago
  We should see some claim of responsibility if it was indeed anyone other than the usual suspects.
  - IAmBroom 19d ago
    Why? Russia gains nothing from taking responsibility.
    - nmeofthestate 19d ago
      No I agree with that, but if it's "activists" I would expect them to claim credit otherwise it's all pointless. The same doesn't follow for Russian fuckery, IMO.

Someone 19d ago

> Just days after a similar (criminal) incident causing a train to derail in France From what I read, the similarity ends in “both involved trains”. This chain of attacks seems to have used short metal pipes (“Footage published by Dutch public broadcaster NOS on Tuesday showed police carrying what appeared to be metal pipes - about 1.5 metres (5ft) long”) to short a connection, making safety systems signal “there’s a train there”, stopping trains further up the track. The France incident involved a piece of rails heavy enough to cause derailment (“The rail fragment was estimated to weigh between 250 and 300 kilograms”) My money is on this being a rogue farmers protest.

rwyinuse 19d ago
Could be also rogue farmers paid by Russia. Easiest way for Russia to cause havoc in Europe is through exploiting existing political issues.
- ajsnigrutin 19d ago
  The easiest way to hide the incompetence of local european politics, be it expensive diesel or the upcoming economic prices is to blame it all on russia. Volkswagen is laying off 100k of workers, because they can't make cars people can afford anymore... blame russia! Germans fed up with merz and vote afd? Russia! Macron doesn't even have 20% of support in polls anymore? Russia! Stub your pinky on the corner of the bed? russia!
  - galangalalgol 19d ago
    It seems unlikely they would let any political divisions or legitimate grievances go unexploited. It is their cultural core competency for centuries. That does not mean the greivances being exploited aren't valid, or that the parties themselves don't aid in the fracture so they don't have to worry about competition with parties whose ideology is too close to theirs. Edit: This is reductive, Russia has tons of culture besides this trait, but it is the fundamental strategy that allowed a landlocked state with no natural borders to survive and expand. When you learn a strategy to survive or cope with adversity, it sticks long after it is beneficial.

peri-cl 19d ago

I don't think they look similar, the synchronicity notwithstanding. The sabotage in France was a 250–300 kg rail fragment (per your link). The objects in the Netherlands look much smaller, and look like they're intended to short-circuit two rails to trigger a signal fault. In one place they found car jumper cables with clamps attached to both rails, https://nos.nl/video/2631081-startkabels-van-spoor-bij-meppel-weggehaald https://nos.nl/video/2631081-startkabels-van-spoor-bij-meppe... ("Startkabels van spoor bij Meppel weggehaald")

apt-get 19d ago
Not asserting this is definitely a Russian op (given the amount of simultaneous farmers' protests and all in NL today), but their modus operandi for foreign operations of this kind involves paying random thugs a few hundred to a couple thousand euros to carry out acts of sabotage using whatever items they have on hand. The items don't need to match, the people involved don't need to know each other.
- sandos 19d ago
  Exactly this, and also they are trying to keep some deniability here, so variations are good.
  - hgomersall 19d ago
    Why would you want to keep it deniable? What's the point in this sort of sabotage if nobody knows you did it?
    - grim_io 19d ago
      Russia is trying to avoid retaliation through stricter sanctions, for example.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 19d ago
      They seem to be very good at "mob tactics." No one can prove anything, for example, but anyone knows that people that piss Putin off, need to stay away from windows in high places.

aaron695 19d ago

[dead]

paganel 19d ago

[flagged]

pjc50 19d ago
Really Western Europe has been ignoring Russia's war for far too long; the MH17 shootdown was in 2014 and the situation has only deteriorated since then.
- DrScientist 19d ago
  Not sure how MH17 shooting is relevant here. While the consensus is that it's likely a Russia controlled/allied battery shot it down - I'm not sure anybody thinks it was anything other than an accident, not an intentional act of sabotage.
  - mcphage 19d ago
    > I'm not sure anybody thinks it was anything other than an accident How do you accidentally shoot down a passenger airplane?
    - anonymars 19d ago
      By shooting at or thinking it is something other than a passenger airplane?
  - account42 19d ago
    If it was a Russian weapon (which is the most likely explanation) then it was the result of them meddling where they shouldn't be - either by supplying separatists with military equipment or by being there themselves, i.e. a part of their ongoing expansionist campaign in Ukraine.
    - throwaway85825 19d ago
      It was a part of the active Russian military. SAM operators don't grow on trees.

misja111 19d ago

Surely there is a lot of Russian-motivated sabotage going on in Europe, but there's another group that might be motivated: exactly today, a major farmer demonstration was already planned. They way they usually go ahead in the Netherlands is drive with their tractors over the highways towards The Hague, where our government is based. Obviously this leads to massive traffic jams. A simultaneous disruption of the Dutch railways would add some extra effect to the expected traffic chaos.

redog 19d ago
Or the other group, instead of actually being motivated are being influenced by the those who would benefit even more from the distribution of chaos.
consp 19d ago
Quite easy to go from a misdemeanor to terrorism charge if you sabotage the train network. IMHO likely those ** farmers causing insane amounts of damage while getting a slap on the wrist every time, that has to end. At least the climate activists only block one highway which you can work around. Unless it turns out it's them. Then they need be treated the same but it's not their MO.

rasz 19d ago

Last week we had four train-truck collisions at Polish level crossings resulting in derailment and passenger death, and afaik 2 or 3 involved foreign truck drivers.

TacticalCoder 19d ago

Leaving aside the irony in seeing the "peaceful" EU (who bet it all on Uncle Sam) now going on full warmongering and wanting to spend 3% of its GDP on warfare, the serious issue here is the lack of will of politicians to punish the authors of such acts, which ruin society for everybody. 44 person injured and a young woman between life and death. Yet when the perpetrators are caught, we'll have journalists and judges relaying the official tune of the EU: "criminals are victims too". They'll get a slap on the wrist and be able to ruin society again in no time. When shall the left accept that people putting 300 kilograms of rails to try to kill people has only one solution: shackles and a heavy ball? Where do you draw the line between "we're all beautiful butterflies" and "some psychos need to be scruffed by the neck and bowed into lifetime submission"? How many deaths?