Europe

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/43294114

The Reverend Sue Parfitt, from Bristol, was detained for holding a placard that read: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” She was among more than 27 people arrested on Saturday for acts of defiance against the proscription.

Archived (archive.org)

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Pedro Sánchez’s efforts to reset Spain’s ruling socialist party after damaging corruption allegations that threatened to topple his coalition government have suffered a severe setback after a party official resigned over accusations of sexual harassment.

Op-ed by Pawel Markiewicz, Executive Director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs office in the U.S.

If there’s one thing to take away from Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine it is the imperial mindset that is deeply engrained in the psyche of Vladimir Putin and the majority of Russia’s elite – an imperial mindset that in-turn is projected onto the lower levels of society. Putin has also made it clear that any resolution to the conflict launched in Ukraine in 2022 must hinge on drastically limiting or completely removing troops from NATO member states along the alliance’s eastern flank – a region of Europe closest to Russia’s borders where allies, like Poland, have dramatically increased their defence spending in hopes of deterring any thoughts of future Russian aggression.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/3422394

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Russian propagandists' laser focus on Moldova became abundantly clear during the 2024 presidential elections. The first round of voting, which coincided with a referendum on European integration, is particularly telling.

Of the 482 sources reporting on Moldova's elections during the voting and counting process, 150 Telegram channels were compromised. Their activities were directly linked to a Kremlin effort to influence the media, with state-backed sources starting disinformation campaigns and attempting to manipulate public opinion. In effect, every third source covering Moldova’s presidential elections was unreliable.

Monitoring of similar influence campaigns conducted by the Institute for Conflict Studies and Analysis of Russia (ICAR) throughout 2024–2025 reveals that compromised and Kremlin-affiliated sources covering Moldova's elections appeared at twice the rate of their typical usage in other political meddling operations.

Russia has compelling reasons to achieve at least a slowdown in Moldova's ascension into the EU, and, if Russia succeeds in installing a puppet parliament, to begin implementing the "Georgian scenario." While the Russians are struggling to create a puppet state like Belarus out of Ukraine, dividing and destabilising Moldova like Russia did with Georgia remains entirely feasible.

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/3422793

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North Korea plans to triple the number of troops it has fighting alongside Russia against Ukraine, CNN reported Wednesday. Ukrainian intelligence estimates cited by the network suggest Pyongyang will send between 25,000 and 30,000 soldiers to join the war in the coming months.

The Ukrainian report says there’s a “great possibility” that North Korean forces will take part in combat in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine “to strengthen the Russian contingent, including during the large-scale offensive operations.”

The intelligence also indicates that Russian forces have started modifying aircraft to transport personnel. Additionally, CNN said it has obtained satellite images that appear to show a North Korean ship at a Russian port and cargo aircraft at North Korea’s Sunan airport.

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Polish researchers have gathered detailed evidence indicating that GPS signal disruptions over the Baltic Sea, ongoing since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, are originating from two military installations in Kaliningrad, according to a report by Defense News.

Since the war began, thousands of aircraft and ships have experienced navigational system failures, leading to flight diversions and cancellations. The disruptions to the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) include both jamming and spoofing of coordinates. The interference is detected almost daily in a variety of locations — from Gdańsk Airport to Baltic Sea shipping lanes to the airspace over Estonia and Finland.

Authorities in the Baltic states — Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia — have directly accused Russia of being responsible. In March, eight European countries filed a formal complaint with the United Nations regarding the practice.

An international research team led by Jarosław Cydejko from Gdynia Maritime University set up monitoring stations around the Gulf of Gdańsk to track and triangulate the sources of interference. Their findings, published this spring, point to two coastal locations in Kaliningrad, accurate to within one kilometer. Both sites are located near known Russian electronic warfare units and military antenna complexes.

The signals originated from the area of the Okunevo antenna complex on Kaliningrad’s central coast, a site that hosts Russian electronic warfare units. Satellite imagery from 2018 shows the presence of the Murmansk-BN GT-01 system there, a truck-mounted array equipped with powerful 32-meter antennas.

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, and Germany have officially declared Russia’s GNSS interference to be a form of hybrid warfare. Estonian Defense Forces Commander Martin Herem has claimed Russia is preparing for a war with the Baltic states. However, Defense News notes that not all experts agree with this interpretation. Some believe the interference might be an unintended byproduct of defensive measures taken in the area of sensitive Russian military infrastructure.

To combat the effects of Russian electronic interference, several countries are working to develop alternative ground-based navigation systems. Such efforts include the R-Mode Baltic project, which is expected to launch by 2026.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/3422964

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One of Russia’s most visible psychological operations in Georgia is the strategy of a “creeping annexation” along the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) separating Georgia from the Russian-occupied regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Since 2013, Russian and separatist forces have incrementally advanced the ABL deeper into Georgian territory, often under the cover of night, by moving border markers, installing barbed wire fences, and erecting “State Border” signs. This process, known as “borderization”, has resulted in the loss of farmland, homes and livelihoods for Georgian villagers, who sometimes wake up to find their properties suddenly within occupied territory.

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From thousands of miles away, Lithuania is offering to help the Philippines confront a rising tide of cyber threats and disinformation on the West Philippine Sea — warning that tactics used in favor of Beijing mirror the same information warfare Russia has waged in Europe.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Šakaliene, concluding the first-ever visit by a Lithuanian defense chief to the Philippines, warned Wednesday, July 2, that the hybrid threats both nations face from their larger neighbors are increasingly sophisticated and coordinated.

"It seems that Russia and China sometimes are piloting certain methods in one region and then applying them in another region," Šakaliene told reporters at a press conference.

The Baltic nation has long grappled with hybrid threats from Moscow and sees parallels in the Philippines’ experience countering the distortion of incidents of Beijing’s aggression toward Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, Šakaliene said.

“From what we hear, the Philippines (deals) with Chinese informational activity in the region, and pressure, for example, this gaslighting about the incidents in the West Philippine Sea,” Šakaliene said. “So you also see a lot of disinformation and propaganda.”

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Lithuania has invited the Philippines to upgrade from observer status to full participant in its annual "Amber Mist" cybersecurity exercise this November. Last year, the Philippines only observed the exercise.

"This year, we invited the Philippines to send their team as participants in this exercise. We are hoping that we will have five countries from the region: the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Australia, and Taiwan," Šakaliene said.

"We are going to share quite practical information because certain cyber attacks that we are facing are quite similar," Šakaliene said. "In certain cases, (this is) a combination of cyber incidents and informational incidents."

Lithuania has also invited the Philippines to participate in the Vilnius Strategic Communications Conference in October 2025, which focuses on information integrity and security.

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Beyond cybersecurity, Šakaliene also pointed to possible cooperation in maritime security. Šakaliene noted that UNCLOS, the international convention covering the world's oceans and seas, falls short in addressing today’s challenges, particularly in protecting critical underwater infrastructure.

"What is happening in the Baltic Sea with critical underwater infrastructure and what is happening with critical underwater infrastructure in your region is quite similar," Šakaliene said.

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Russia is increasing foreign-currency sales from the National Wealth Fund [NWF] to address a growing budget deficit after oil and gas revenues plunged to their lowest level since January 2023.

Russia’s Central Bank, acting on Finance Ministry instructions, will sell yuan on the Moscow Exchange at a rate of 9.8 billion rubles ($124 million) per day from July 7 to Aug. 6, an increase of 2.5 billion rubles ($31 million) per day compared to June.

This marks the second time in 2025 that the Kremlin has dipped into the NWF a sovereign reserve built largely from oil and gas revenues, to manage fiscal shortfalls.

But the fund's remaining liquidity is shrinking fast.

At the start of July, the NWF’s liquid assets stood at 4.1 trillion rubles ($52.6 billion), including 1.3 trillion rubles in yuan and gold acquired during last year’s oil-price windfall.

[The fund's main responsibiliy is to support the Russian pension system, but it is also used to fund budget deficits.]

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Fawning for Trump’s favor, European leaders are ramping up military spending at the expense of public benefits.