In recent months, Russian nationals have been arrested in Germany on charges of planning to attack military facilities. English prosecutors claim that Russian agents set fire to a warehouse containing aid for Ukraine. Sweden is investigating alleged Russian-sponsored acts of sabotage. The Czech government accuses Moscow of sabotaging its railways, as well.
Estonia, meanwhile, has reportedly uncovered a host of Russian plots on its soil. Russian ships are suspected of targeting communications cables and wind farms in the North Sea. Moscow may have also been involved in some suspicious fires — including one that engulfed a shopping center — in Poland. The roster of allegations goes on and on.
Russia naturally denies any culpability, but where there is this much smoke — literal or figurative — there is probably some fire. As Prime Minister Kaja Kallas of Estonia has said, Russia seems to be waging a "shadow war” against Europe — a campaign meant to weaken Western support for Ukraine, or at least to punish European countries for providing it. In doing so, President Vladimir Putin is also giving a preview of the hyperresentful, asymmetrically aggressive Russia that will emerge from the current war.