How Russia’s hybrid war is spreading fear across Europe

In early September, worshippers gathering for dawn prayers at several locations across Paris discovered a gruesome and spiteful scene – bloodied pigs’ heads discarded on the doorsteps of their mosques. A deeply offensive act, Muslims are forbidden from eating pork and consider pigs to be unclean.

Soon after, a farmer in Normandy in northern France, who had seen news reports of the dead animal heads appearing around the city, contacted police to say two people driving a vehicle with Serbian number plates had purchased ten pigs heads from his farm.

Further investigations by French authorities found the pigs heads had been placed outside the mosques by foreign nationals with the “clear intention of causing unrest within the nation”.

This provocative stunt was just one of a range of bizarre and potentially lethal incidents over recent months that have been linked to a Russian campaign to inflame divisions and spread fear across Europe. Other incidents tracked back to Russian intelligence include the burning of a Warsaw shopping centre and a warehouse in London; exploding parcels in Leipzig and Birmingham and the recent disruption of airports with drones and smuggler balloons in Norway, Denmark and Lithuania.

Who is carrying out this wide array of sabotage-style stunts and do the criminals responsible even know they’re being hired by Russian officials?

What is Russia’s long-term goal in fostering instability and discord across Europe?

And how is Russia targeting Ireland as part of this strategy?

Today, on In The News, how Russia’s hybrid war is sowing chaos across Europe.

Irish Times Europe correspondent Naomi O’Leary discusses Moscow’s campaign of sabotage and espionage, which has steadily intensified since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Andrew McNair. 

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