Proxies deploying tactics including migrant smuggling in destabilisation efforts across EU, enforcement agency findsEurope live – latest updatesRussia and other state actors are driving an increase in politically motivated cyber-attacks and sabotage of infrastructure and public institutions in the EU, the bloc’s police enforcement agency has found.Europol’s 80-page serious and organised crime threat assessment for 2025 also describes in detail how “hybrid threat” actors have established a “shadow alliance” with organised criminal gangs in Europe to try to destabilise the functioning of the EU and its member states. Continue reading...
Europol reports Russia utilizes criminal networks to execute sabotage, cyberattacks, and destabilization efforts in Europe through a "shadow alliance." This alliance allows Russia and other state actors to leverage criminal resources for politically motivated attacks on critical infrastructure, public institutions, and democratic processes. The attacks include sabotage, arson, cyber-attacks, data theft, and migrant smuggling with Russia and countries in its sphere of influence being the origin of the increase.
