Russia is reportedly using so-called "low-level agents" in its hybrid warfare against the West β ordinary civilians recruited, often via social media, to carry out relatively minor acts of espionage and sabotage.
These acts can include arson, photographing or filming military or critical infrastructure, or even sending parcel bombs. The goal is always the same: to create chaos and insecurity among the population.
In his October government statement, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also accused Moscow of waging hybrid warfare against the West.
Hybrid warfare combines military, political, economic, and cyber tactics to blur the line between war and peace.
In comparison, the so-called Islamic State terrorist group (IS) has also been accused of a form of hybrid warfare, using the internet to radicalise and unsettle people in the West.
"There's this notion that hybrid warfare is either little green men, like in 2014, or disinformation," Kacper RΔkawek, senior research fellow and programme director at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT), told Euronews. "But there are many other aspects β crime, for example."
"If you look at Russia's military doctrine, at interstate terrorism β state against state β they are fully aware that hybrid warfare is a tool they c
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