The proposals are to be discussed during next week’s meeting of EU foreign ministers.
BERLIN — Germany is calling on EU countries to take a tougher stance on hybrid threats coming from Russia — including by expanding the bloc’s sanctions regime and limiting access to Europe by Moscow’s diplomatic missions.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock circulated proposals drawn up by her ministry in the runup to next week’s meeting of her European counterparts in Brussels “with the aim to pave the way for coordinated measures,” according to her ministry in Berlin.
Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has ramped up its campaign of so-called hybrid attacks — such as arson, cyber and information campaigns and sabotage — throughout Europe. Recent examples include the alleged cutting of energy and communications cables in the Baltic Sea, which German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius described as “sabotage.”
The foreign ministry in Berlin is looking to increase the consequences of such attacks by adopting new sanctions against Russia’s so-called shadow fleet — oil and gas tankers helping Moscow earn billions of dollars from illicit fossil fuel sales by surreptitious means — and by limiting the time of accreditation and freedom of movement for holders of Russian diplomatic passports, according to the document seen by POLITICO.
In order to help prevent more hybrid attacks in future, the foreign ministry wants to ramp up cooperation with private companies, such as cable providers, while conducting regular stress tests for critical infrastructure, the document reads.
Germany is hoping the EU can establish a more proactive communications strategy to make it clear that Russia is to blame for certain incidents. This could include measures to declassify intelligence information to make the point.
In the past governments have found it difficult to quickly and definitively attribute attacks to Moscow.
