“Real risk” of an unconventional attack from Russia. Warning from NATO

Hybrid attacks Russiathe frequency of which has increased to “absolutely unacceptable” levels five years ago, leave NATO “in a boiled frog situation,” James Appathurai, NATO Deputy Secretary General for Innovation, Hybrid and Cyber ​​Threats, said in an interview with Sky News.

– The Alliance must determine what its tolerance threshold is and what form of aggression from Moscow should result in its response, including the use of military force – he explains in an interview with British television.

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Sky News reports that his interlocutor is currently working with his team to modernize NATO's strategy towards hybrid attacks, so that the countries belonging to the alliance are aware of what type of violence “in the gray zone” should be met with in response.

Appathurai warns that “there is a real risk” of an unconventional attack by Russia on NATO that could result in numerous deaths or cause serious economic losses.

Asked whether a hybrid attack could reach such a scale that it would force NATO to invoke Article V of the treaty and launch a “collective response”, the NATO Deputy Secretary General replied: – What worries me is that one of such attacks will become a large-scale breakthrough.

Appathurai's team will present a strategy for the Alliance to “understand, deter and respond to hybrid warfare.” The last time such plans were modernized was in 2015, when the threat was incomparably lower – writes Sky News.

This strategy is to be approved at the NATO summit in 2025, at which time decisions will be made on how the Alliance can better conduct its policy of deterrence against this form of aggression, without causing the conflict to flare up.

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In September, during experimental exercises of the Alliance countries in PortugalAppathurai told reporters that a particularly serious threat from Russia is sabotage of critical infrastructure NATO countrieswhich is located at the bottom of the seas.

– The Russians have been using the so-called an underwater research program to map our critical infrastructure. This program is very well financed, (…) Russians attach great importance to it, he said then.

According to NATO, 99 percent the world's data is transmitted through a global network of undersea cables. An estimated $10 trillion in financial transactions pass through these vast networks of cables every day. In addition to data cables, critical subsea infrastructure also includes electrical cables and pipelines delivering oil and gas.