Juha Ristamäki
At this point, all boredom is in accordance with Russia’s playbook, so that it would achieve something in its launched attack against Ukraine and the West, writes Juha Ristamäki.
Pekka Toveri, who entered the European Parliament, is a former head of military intelligence. Jenni Host
In its analysis on Tuesday, Iltalehti shed light on how electronic warfare is being waged on the border between Finland and Russia. Foreign and security policy sources tell Iltalehte about this.
With GPS jamming, Russia tries to protect its military targets from, for example, drone attacks. Finland and NATO allies respond to this with their own actions.
On this side of the border, it is also about Finland and NATO maintaining their defense capabilities at all times.
Several citizens have also become victims of GPS harassment. Air traffic has had to be rerouted, at sea GPS can sometimes show what is happening and maybe a berry picker might get lost due to interference.
At the military level, the matter is not discussed publicly. This is electronic, low intensity warfare.
However, we should not lose sleep over this issue, as NATO members and as an ally of the United States, we have the best possible means to minimize Russian interference.
Elevated to the European Parliament, former intelligence chief of the General Staff and evp. major general Pekka Toveri (kok) caused a small uproar in July when he said that Finland was at war with Russia. The general’s moped was suspected to have gotten out of hand, and the state leadership did not sign the former intelligence chief’s analysis either.
Toveri clarified to Iltalehti that warfare today should be understood more broadly than just kinetic warfare. Kinetic war means traditional warfare, where war is fought with military forces and weapons.
– If you look today at what Russia has been doing for the last 10 years – blowing up weapons depots in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, carrying out almost 20 assassinations or assassination attempts, GPS jamming, cutting submarine cables, cyber attacks, information operations, corruption, territorial violations, and now a massive sabotage campaign. This doesn’t sound very peaceful, Toveri said.
The NATO countries have wanted to avoid using the word war, instead they talk about the hostile operations carried out by Russia as hybrid warfare. However, the truth is that the electronic defensive war on Finland’s eastern border, which also benefits Ukraine, is a form of modern warfare.
In July, Ukraine also allegedly attacked a Russian air base on the Kola Peninsula with drones. Olenja Airport, located near the city of Olenegorsk, is about 150 kilometers from the north-eastern border of Finland.
Russia’s reaction to the attack has still been minimal. The Kremlin may want to keep quiet about the whole embarrassing thing for Russia, or use this as an example of a case where NATO countries facilitate attacks on Russian soil.
When Finland was applying for NATO membership, the then president of the republic Sauli Niinistö warned of various annoyances that Russia could cause.
Now those boredoms have come, even though we don’t know for sure who is behind the various menial jobs. Prime minister Petteri Orpo (kok) promised in an interview with Iltalehti that the public will be told what is known, once the investigations into, for example, the toppling of a cell phone mast have been completed. In any case, the GPS interference, among other things, is definitely caused by Russia.
Despite everything, you should keep a cool head. All the bores are at this point in line with Russia’s playbook to achieve something in its launched offensive against Ukraine and the West.
Like the current president Alexander Stubb said, we just have to get used to the fact that the war also pushes our borders. “We are calm and vigilant,” summed up Stubb aptly.
#Editorial #Comrade
