"close to Renault's factory in the town of Cléon", which is now preparing to start manufacturing drones for the French military, in collaboration with Ukrainian military-industrial groups.
peri-cl 57 minutes ago [-]
I don't think they look similar, the synchronicity notwithstanding. The sabotage in France was a 250–300 kg rail fragment (per your link). The objects in the Netherlands look much smaller, and look like they're intended to short-circuit two rails to trigger a signal fault. In one place they found car jumper cables with clamps attached to both rails,
Not asserting this is definitely a Russian op (given the amount of simultaneous farmers' protests and all in NL today), but their modus operandi for foreign operations of this kind involves paying random thugs a few hundred to a couple thousand euros to carry out acts of sabotage using whatever items they have on hand. The items don't need to match, the people involved don't need to know each other.
sandos 49 minutes ago [-]
Exactly this, and also they are trying to keep some deniability here, so variations are good.
hgomersall 26 minutes ago [-]
Why would you want to keep it deniable? What's the point in this sort of sabotage if nobody knows you did it?
DrScientist 2 minutes ago [-]
The ideal scenario is everyone suspects it's you but can't prove it.
You have both the desired threat, but no concrete biases for an official response.
Also an uncertainty limits action - it might be a random event, it could even be a false flag.
One of the problem's here is narratives are being spun by multiple actors and it depends on who you believe.
the_mitsuhiko 3 minutes ago [-]
Doubt is always good.
grim_io 14 minutes ago [-]
Russia is trying to avoid retaliation through stricter sanctions, for example.
ChrisMarshallNY 10 minutes ago [-]
They seem to be very good at "mob tactics."
No one can prove anything, for example, but anyone knows that people that piss Putin off, need to stay away from windows in high places.
tyrabound 30 minutes ago [-]
It's odd that you would jump to "Russian op" and hedging by _not_ asserting that it is "definitely" one; but it very well could also be and arguably even is far more likely an act by someone who would benefit form scaring the public and manipulating the affected governments. I'm not going to assert at all, one way or another who it may be because it could be several actors with interests in producing outcomes of fear among the public and animating and manipulating the respective governments and the clowns in the EU to take actions without thinking.
It is really a rather common playbook of stoking fear and even instigating war not for direct outcomes that has been used innumerable times over history. Only it seems that the majority of people are incapable of seeing, accepting, or maybe just internalizing when they are being played, lied to, and manipulated for the benefit of others at their own expense.
One thing that logic would dictate though is that Russia would be extremely low on the list of suspects since they gain nothing by some minor event like this, are negatively affected in every manner possible by being in any way behind such actions, and they could simply just send barrages of missiles to hit actually meaningful targets if they ever become sick and tired of all the CIA/MI6 clowns thinking they can salami slice their way into conquering Russia and once the Germans and Poles have been whipped up to be the battering ram of minced meat again.
It's why we have so many catastrophic and calamitous events in our history because people never ask themselves who may be benefitting from the act that is immediately used to manipulate people through fear. In spite of having been told and explained a long time ago and many times since, you should always ask you who benefits, cui bono. Russia does not benefit from scaring the populace into supporting the murderous and war mongering governments and the maniacal ruling parasites that control them in order to profit from war as they send your children in to the meat grinder.
apt-get 24 minutes ago [-]
> One thing that logic would dictate though is that Russia would be extremely low on the list of suspects since they gain nothing and are negatively affected in every manner possible by being in any way behind such actions.
Or one could choose not to take this in isolation from all the acts of brazen and identified sabotage Russia does, slashing deep-sea cables in international waters with their shadow fleets, organizing psyop campaigns throughout the entire continent that can be traced back right to their government units, and so on :-)
ailef 10 minutes ago [-]
Just like North Stream 2? /s
Muromec 20 minutes ago [-]
\One thing that logic would dictate though is that Russia would be extremely low on the list of suspects since they gain nothing and are negatively affected in every manner possible by being in any way behind such actions.
They are known for actions that negatively affect them and everyone around. That's kinda their whole thing.
fakedang 51 minutes ago [-]
Sabotage is sabotage, doesn't have to be the same down to the minutae to be called similar.
Someone 57 minutes ago [-]
> Just days after a similar (criminal) incident causing a train to derail in France
From what I read, the similarity ends in “both involved trains”. This chain of attacks seems to have used short metal pipes (“Footage published by Dutch public broadcaster NOS on Tuesday showed police carrying what appeared to be metal pipes - about 1.5 metres (5ft) long”) to short a connection, making safety systems signal “there’s a train there”, stopping trains further up the track.
The France incident involved a piece of rails heavy enough to cause derailment (“The rail fragment was estimated to weigh between 250 and 300 kilograms”)
My money is on this being a rogue farmers protest.
rwyinuse 38 minutes ago [-]
Could be also rogue farmers paid by Russia. Easiest way for Russia to cause havoc in Europe is through exploiting existing political issues.
ajsnigrutin 10 minutes ago [-]
The easiest way to hide the incompetence of local european politics, be it expensive diesel or the upcoming economic prices is to blame it all on russia.
Volkswagen is laying off 100k of workers, because they can't make cars people can afford anymore... blame russia! Germans fed up with merz and vote afd? Russia! Macron doesn't even have 20% of support in polls anymore? Russia! Stub your pinky on the corner of the bed? russia!
walrus01 1 hours ago [-]
Most consumers know Renault as an ordinary car manufacturer but also worth mentioning it's a major manufacturer of armored vehicles for the French armed forces.
puttycat 1 hours ago [-]
Yes. And in combination it completely rules out the suggestion that the Netherlands attack is some kind of local activist protest. (The France attack resulted in several grave injuries and could have just as easily resulted in dozens of deaths.)
pasquinelli 52 minutes ago [-]
that's a huge leap
paganel 40 minutes ago [-]
"Live by the sword, die by the sword", meaning that the Western-European military alliance should also become aware of the consequences of being involved in a war against Russia, there's no hiding behind the bush anymore since they've started doing that. And before anyone starts crying: "These are civilian targets!", which would be true, I'd remind them that the Wildberries logistics centers in Russia were also civilian targets.
pjc50 34 minutes ago [-]
Really Western Europe has been ignoring Russia's war for far too long; the MH17 shootdown was in 2014 and the situation has only deteriorated since then.
bluGill 30 minutes ago [-]
You cannot ignore war - Ukraine found that out the hard way. Just because you want to be peaceful doesn't mean everybody else does and you cannot stop them from attacking by being peaceful.
...this after Russia has been targeting civilian targets in Ukraine from the first days of the invasion.
happosai 8 minutes ago [-]
Of course, the only reason wild berries got hit is because Putin started the war. The only reason why why Russians (and Russian speaking Ukrainians) are dying in large numbers is Putin.
The pro-russian historic fanfiction asserts that "Putin was forced to war or NATO would have expanded to ukraine or something"
There is no conceivable scenario where Russians would have worse safety than what Putin's decision caused. Heck, the long range drones attacking Russia today would simple not exist.
People say trump is Putin's stooge, but honestly Putin looks like a western plant. Nobody else since Stalin has killed as many Russians than Putin.
Citizen_Lame 28 minutes ago [-]
Those were downed by Ukraine. Not, that facts matter to Russian bot. Well done comrade.
pestatije 30 minutes ago [-]
its been mentioned ad-nauseam that wildberries also sells to the military... where have you been hiding?
paganel 5 minutes ago [-]
> also sells to the military... where have you been hiding?
And the Western-built railway system has been used for war/military reasons since its very inception (almost), it's how Prussia got the best over the Habsburgs at Sadowa in the 1860s. One could also say that Tsarist Russia not yet having a rail connection to Crimea just before that caused them to be defeated against the Western incursion at Sevastopol.
petesergeant 25 minutes ago [-]
Russia's biggest asset is general apathy in the rich West. People with names written in funny script that sound like Bond characters shooting at each other a thousand kilometers away is hard to get Peter and Paddy and Pierre and Pontus and Pablo living comfortable lives with comfortable jobs to give a shit about. There's a reason Western governments make sure the media prints stories about intercepting Russian jets.
Bringing the war to them and getting the public to want their government to commit blood and treasure to doing something about it is a ferociously poor strategic decision from the Kremlin. "That Putin killed a 17 year old French girl on her way to school on the train" is unlikely to cause the public in the West to back down.
aaron695 41 minutes ago [-]
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Kim_Bruning 2 hours ago [-]
So today's the yearly presentation of the new budget, with protests expected in several places. Whether this sabotage campaign is (part of a) misguided protest action or something else is yet to be determined.
That does mean that I would not automatically jump to conclusions about Russia or war or whatever; since much of national public policy is presented today, it's also a popular day to express disagreement, and apparently some farmers had already announced they would be doing so today.
(I'd assume the BBC reporter to be aware that Prinsjesdag is today, and that they'd mention that fact in this article, but apparently not.)
libertine 39 minutes ago [-]
You'll find the answer in who is organizing these groups.
The climate activists mostly do something stupid like obstructing traffic, unlike the farmers, who obstruct traffic in a way you apparently consider rational.
crote 1 hours ago [-]
Of those, the "tractors on highways" is the only one which has resulted in someone dying. So much for rational...
phoghed 1 hours ago [-]
Driving is dangerous business. We tend to forget since it’s so commonplace and integral to our lives. Cars have gotten much safer though, no longer the top cause of TBI in the US
teekert 1 hours ago [-]
I think national news indeed is somewhat carefully suggesting farmers (ie [0]), actually it looks like it is escalating and they burning hay now. This article speaks of "Radical Farmer Leaders".
The NOS is not the most unbiased news source in the Netherlands which is unfortunate. If it is indeed 'radical farm leaders' who are behind these sabotage actions they have turned up the temperature quite a bit and stand to lose a lot of support from the public. It would be a strange thing to do since there is not much overlap between farming and railways in the Netherlands, a small country with a strong agricultural sector which' products mostly travel by road, water and air.
Ah, the magic of being a rightwing populist, which gives you a free pass to do illegal things (drive a tractor on the motorway) even if that results in fatalities.
hagbard_c 36 minutes ago [-]
Yes, just like these [1] German border guards. Next time they should bring a sign like the one shown in the article.
For those who don't read Dutch and can't be bothered to translate the article: Germany has restarted border checks which at the time of writing of this article had caused 171 accidents, some of which lethal.
Whatabout is quite tiring, we are talking about the farmers you are defending as "rational", and absolving them from being the source of issues...
Can we keep on topic?
15 minutes ago [-]
sedan_baklazhan 1 hours ago [-]
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krige 1 hours ago [-]
Shouldn't you be on the frontline, Ivanushka? Or is this how you can avoid getting drafted?
sedan_baklazhan 1 hours ago [-]
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9865322689965 1 hours ago [-]
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dakolli 2 hours ago [-]
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cyclopeanutopia 2 hours ago [-]
Russia is involved in many acts of sabotage in Europe over past 2 or 3 years, so this is a very natural first guess for us, European citizens. They also started increasing their activity recently.
shakna 1 hours ago [-]
Today is also Prinsjesdag. So pissed off Dutch is more likely. As it has been, for the last three years running with highways getting blocked on this day...
markvdb 44 minutes ago [-]
One, the other, or a mix of both! If I were a foreign agent wanting to sow chaos, I'd look for the easy to press buttons. Encouraging pissed-off Dutch citizens would be an obvious part of the plan.
These acts are subterfuge by their nature so you're not going to get Putin coming on TV and saying "lol it was me".
"There is no proof at this stage to link the flying bomb directly to Russia, which denies any role. But as well as the means and the motive, Moscow does have form. The BBC has seen details of the investigation into a plot in 2024 in which Russian-linked proxies in Poland and Lithuania not only handled drones and explosives but also delivered them to Germany."
Except that none of cases were proven. For one, recent attempts to blow up power lines in Germany were done by a German individual. Or remember how Russia was accused for blowing up Nord Stream. It never made any sense, but still European politicians and Western media fiercely pushed this narrative.
Get some critical media literacy and stop listening to NAFO trolls.
cbg0 1 hours ago [-]
Where are you getting the "correct" narrative from?
crazybonkersai 54 minutes ago [-]
By reading multiple sources by different parties and thinking for yourself. Truth is the first casualty of war.
piva00 42 minutes ago [-]
That's the usual trope used as an escape for the question: where are your sources?
Provide them or stop being so defensive about it, being defensive just shows you got not substance to your claim. Show, don't tell, if you can't show then you might have to do some more thinking by yourself to figure out why you ended up that way.
cbg0 30 minutes ago [-]
And are these multiple sources 50% biased towards one side and 50% biased towards the other side? If so, how can you tell? And are you doing an average of what "the truth" is at the end?
crazybonkersai 11 minutes ago [-]
You wait for 20 or more years for documents become unclassified and historians to do their job.
cbg0 5 minutes ago [-]
So in the meantime you have no real opinion about anything?
icantevenhold 50 minutes ago [-]
None of the cases were proven is a bold claim.
It’s hard to prove these things of course but you have to ask yourself who benefits most from these kind of attacks and sabotage? Who benefits from a weakened and infighting Europe?
Hybrid warfare is by definition hard to attribute
crazybonkersai 34 minutes ago [-]
You can use the same logic about shit happening in Russia too. E.g. EU meddling in elections in Russia. Western security apparatus was behind Crocus City Hall attack. Ukrainian drones are launched from European countries and EU is actively involved in planning these attacks . All these claims were made by Russian media and politicians. Do you believe these as well, considering EU benefits the most from the weak Russia?
cyclopeanutopia 1 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
phoghed 1 hours ago [-]
You’re better off just giving them a news article or something, because “many such cases” is basically a meme
cyclopeanutopia 20 minutes ago [-]
Someone else did in this thread, but tbh I'm not inclined to give people behaving like Russian trolls too much of the benefit of doubt.
bilekas 2 hours ago [-]
They have a habit of being involved. It's not exactly plucked out of thin air!
rebolek 2 hours ago [-]
I'm trained by Russian occupation of my country.
IhateAI 1 hours ago [-]
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smodo 2 hours ago [-]
There are some indications that make Russian saboteurs a very likely culprit. It would be unwise to look at every occurrence of sabotage as a singular incident in the context of the ongoing campaign against European political stability.
I knew before clicking it will be one of the things they say. people are sheeps. they will say whatever they think is right up to a limit. then they will break this limit and punish everyone that is deviating from it. this is what happened in nazi germany, soviet union, china and in the US under biden and I can already see the premises of the next term of US presidency through the lindsay clancy reaction from millions of women. to me it feels like we broke this limit in the modern developed world now. sad that as humans we cant use our brains for better than following what our hiveminds say is truth
cicko 1 hours ago [-]
Right. Instead, we should do whatever someone writes in an anonymous forum.
markus_zhang 1 hours ago [-]
Who did it is irrelevant. The more important thing is who the propaganda is blaming. Then we know what the elites (behind this piece of propaganda) want.
scrollop 53 minutes ago [-]
[flagged]
HelloUsername 2 hours ago [-]
Might be related to today's yearly 'Prinsjesdag' in the Netherlands:
The day on which the reigning monarch of the Netherlands addresses a joint session of the States-General of the Netherlands (consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives) to give the Speech from the Throne (Dutch: Troonrede), similar to the annual State of the Union in the United States or the British State Opening of Parliament. This speech sets out the main features of government policy for the coming parliamentary session.
maybe, but it's a step or two up from blocking roads?
Muximize 60 minutes ago [-]
Farmers protesting new nitrogen emissions regulation. They are also setting hay bales on fire next to highways. The rail sabotage is relatively harmless, the tracks use block signalling so if you use a conductive metal bar or jumper cables to connect the rails, the system thinks a train is present and the preceding signal will stay red.
nelox 1 hours ago [-]
I would be surprised if it wasn’t by Russia. Russian infrastructure is being systematically destroyed by Ukraine with funding, training, intelligence and materiel from Europe. This is an attempt to discourage European support by disrupting Europeans.
pprotas 1 hours ago [-]
Likely organized by farmer protest groups (FDF for example) to protest against emission restriction regulation. They are known for their dangerous stunts, including driving their tractors on the highway and spraying manure on government buildings. These actions are tolerated by the Dutch police, which willingly and purposefully refuses to punish these acts.
pibaker 19 minutes ago [-]
It's crazy how much deference is given to farmers compared to every other occupation.
If the garbage men started dumping the contents of garbage bags in public places I bet they will not be given a free pass.
Aromasin 5 minutes ago [-]
Look to Birmingham in the UK for evidence of the same deference. Many have been on strike since 2025. The city was a rat infested public waste dump for nearly 3 months until the government hired private firms to do the waste handling while the public worker strike action continued.
Farmers and right wing people in all of Europe are actively being disinformed by Russian intelligence service and either wilfully ignores it or too incompetent to realize it.
pprotas 44 minutes ago [-]
We are all being disinformed, whether it's by a foreign or our own government. This is not a problem unique to Europe, right-wingers, farmers or Russia. The goal is to have us fight while the powerful become even more powerful. It is important to be aware of this fact, it is not just "the other side I don't agree with" that are affected, and thinking of them as willfully ignorant or incompetent is what the powerful would like you to think (infighting is the goal).
You are right in the sense that there is likely an underlying meddling causing these farmers to act this way. It does not excuse their actions.
lmf4lol 23 minutes ago [-]
can you explain how Dutch farmers are being disinformed by Russian intelligence services? I am REALLy curious.
bluGill 27 minutes ago [-]
Too bad Russia had to go to war in the first place.
kaon_2 1 hours ago [-]
Ockham's razor may be? Big protests are common on Prinsjesdag, particularly when sensitive decisions or policies are made. A local protest organisation is therefore significantly more likely than an organized foreign sabotage. If I were Putin and had foreign agents in the Netherlands I certainly wouldn't expose them this physically.
Enginerrrd 4 minutes ago [-]
To be fair, Russia also sends people out to inflame active protests and try to push them into greater extremism.
walrus01 2 hours ago [-]
And on the same day that a (very likely Russian) UAV had to be shot down in Lithuanian air space.
This is getting concerning. Multiple locations and deliberate disruption suggest this may be more than random vandalism. Hopefully investigators find out who is behind it and why.
antonmks 1 hours ago [-]
I am not saying that Russia was behind this, but 99% likely.
NietTim 1 hours ago [-]
It should be noted that today is Prinsjesdag and the new yearly budget is being presented, or however that is properly translated in english. Especially now that farmers are also lighting hay bales on fire next to highways the most likely explanation is nationals doing this
amelius 1 hours ago [-]
Makes you think. If Russia can get a bunch of teenagers to put pipes on the railway tracks or fly some drones near an airport, then so can AI.
This is very much why I find most people's AI doom scenarios trite.
Humans are useful, easily manipulated operatives in the medium AIs are conversant in and we already have evidence of agents doing exactly this in arguing for PR requests (likely with prompting by an operator but still).
raverbashing 1 hours ago [-]
It's not a "bunch of teenagers", a regular pipe won't cause a train to derail, one would need heavy machinery to move that rail in France
Bootvis 1 hours ago [-]
Nothing was derailed, they put pipes on the rails that tricked the system into believing there was a train on the track, shutting it down
Rover222 17 minutes ago [-]
pre-coffee and I kept reading that as "sabotage causes major Neanderthal rail disruption"
I was like hmmmm what timeline am I in now?
kaon_2 1 hours ago [-]
Sad to see so many people here in the comments jump the gun and think of Russia.
Some local context: Today is "prinsjesdag" when the budget is announced. Protests are common, particularly when sensitive decisions are made. There are multiple organized protest movements in the country that have used physical force in the past and some of them had announced protests for today.
Could it be Russia? Yes. But local protests seem significantly more likely. Moreover, if I were Putin I wouldn't expose my foreign agents this physically. I would use them in much more insidious ways such as actually starting or supporting these protest movements. In a similar vein: Could any shooting in the US be caused by foreign agents? Maybe. But usually there is a much simpler explanation; guns and bitterness.
braho 33 minutes ago [-]
Protests draw attention to your cause. This doesn't draw attention to anything, it is straightforward sabotage. Neither is it in line with how typical protestors operated before.
You are jumping to the assumption that foreign agents wouldn't be exposed, but any willing idiot can be bought to conduct such activity. Recent research in Denmark showed that sabotage comes, most likely, from locals, persuaded by foreign actors.
So two things could be true at once. A local 'protestor', disengaged through some issue (whether climate, farming or anything else), persuaded to join some 'resistance' by anyone.
I don't expect this to be supported by local protesting groups, like FDF or XR, either. Way too risky, media-wise.
ajsnigrutin 18 minutes ago [-]
It could also be kids doing it "for the lolz", like in slovenia:
If this was a protest it would be clear who did it. The farmers' have no incentive to mess with infrastructure without being visible for their cause.
libertine 29 minutes ago [-]
Why is it sad for you for people to assume that recurring events with the same source are a base assumption to be made?
cynicalsecurity 1 hours ago [-]
Europeans don't realise how close war is to their homes. Russia won't stop unless it's stopped.
etiennebausson 35 minutes ago [-]
Or maybe they do realise it how close it is.
It is not a certainty yet, but we can see russia circling.
No idea when it would start but there are only two outcomes I can see:
* Russia doesn't use nukes and get flattened. They don't have the troops, material or finances to deploy on even half the frontline.
* Russia use nukes and get flattened (and so does a chunk of EU). French doctrine when it come to nuclear warfare is quite agressive. Not idea how london would react, but major russian cities and/or ressource hubs would see retalations on kind.
I don't know how much support or opposition from the population such actions would have, but people are getting fed up with external threat burning so much of our governments time and attention on external issues (brexit, babysitting trump, russian threat) that internal issues get further pushed to the future.
apexalpha 10 minutes ago [-]
>Europeans don't realise how close war is to their homes.
I would add 'Western-' to that. The Eastern Europeans are keenly aware, have been for years.
- Dutch person.
barrenko 16 minutes ago [-]
We are at war with Russia, but just as with climate or mass immigration, we refuse to address it.
gambiting 53 minutes ago [-]
Define Europeans - us Poles absolutely understand the danger. In fact I'd say we're already at war with Russia, the way they attack our democracy, our institutions and politics daily. But someone in Portugal might not see it the same way we do.
igleria 59 minutes ago [-]
I'm starting to be a little worried about what Putin has planned for Europe.
rossant 4 minutes ago [-]
Starting? I've been worried for more than 4 years.
scrollop 53 minutes ago [-]
A desperate megalomaniac is a dangerous thing.
bamboozled 1 hours ago [-]
The little green men
10 minutes ago [-]
barrenko 2 hours ago [-]
As a european, for the love of god, can we address any single of our concerns by either the national or the supranational government?
It seems as if one ambiguates the other.
HPsquared 2 hours ago [-]
It's useful because if an issue is difficult, both levels can disavow responsibility.
HSO 1 hours ago [-]
in german there is a word for this
Zuständigkeitspingpong
competence table tennis
ramblerman 1 hours ago [-]
Sry to be pedantic (it is german after all) but,
"responsibility table tennis" would be a better fit.
Competence in english translates to the skill side of the word
myself248 1 hours ago [-]
> in german there is a word for this
I am not surprised.
> competence table tennis
Magnificent!
BoxOfRain 1 hours ago [-]
> It seems as if one ambiguates the other.
Interestingly this mechanism contributed a lot to Brexit in my opinion, whenever there was legislation the politicians wanted to enact but knew would be unpopular with the voters they'd blame the EU and wring their hands saying there was nothing to be done, while in the background gold-plating the legislation far beyond what the EU was even asking for. This also made it easy for populists to point to many absurd examples of the EU being comically bureaucratic, when a lot of the more nonsensical ones were literally domestic additions. When the referendum happened, the consequences were obvious to everyone.
While no Brexiteer myself, I personally would want to see the European Parliament get a lot more powers and influence before I threw my wholehearted support behind rejoining. Half the problem with the EU is that it's seen as not particularly democratic as a place for legislation to originate, and giving the elected organ more power (including the power to propose legislation in its own right, and dismiss legislation proposed by the Commission with much more prejudice) would go a long way to addressing that I think. The Parliament needs to be more, well, parliamentary in how it functions.
raverbashing 1 hours ago [-]
No, it seems governments can only ignore the concerns then complain the 'alt-right' parties get voted
ajsnigrutin 8 minutes ago [-]
...or blame russia!
(Some media literally blamed putin because people voted for afd in the recent state election in germany).
9865322689965 1 hours ago [-]
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scrollaway 2 hours ago [-]
Little by little, people are realising that Europe is at war. Politicians are trying so hard not to say it because of the implications, but there’s only so long you can keep your head buried in the sand.
We’re under constant attacks from Russia… drones, sabotage, cyberattacks, propaganda campaigns derailing our elections…
I’m sick of it.
maxboone 2 hours ago [-]
We don't know whether this was Russia, it's just as likely it was the "farmers defence force" or climate activists.
Edit: some context as I'm looking like a Russian shill now, which I understand. Today is the day that the budget gets announced, and the farmer terrorist organization (farmer defence force) have announced actions - and have disrupted highways by setting bales of hay on fire, and all the disruptions happened where farmer concentrations are high.
Regardless, the situation is dire, and probably either the tankies or terror farmers are being helped by Russian destabilizing forces, it's too early to call this disruption an action from the FSB.
toasty228 2 hours ago [-]
In the case of France it is pretty obvious, they would never attack random people in such a way. They either target public infrastructure or very specific politician/execs properties, not random people, and definitely not in a way that could result in deaths.
cucumber3732842 41 minutes ago [-]
>or very specific politician/execs properties, not random people,
I don't know enough about dutch politics but in my country if the blue collar anti-regulation people wanted to annoy the white collar pro-regulation people without annoying other blue collar people stopping the trains would accomplish that pretty handily.
>and definitely not in a way that could result in deaths.
They laid pipes and jumper cables across the tracks causing the signals to be red.
n4r9 2 hours ago [-]
Don't you think those groups would have claimed responsibility by now?
hhh 2 hours ago [-]
no? if you are diligent you can say nothing and people will hopefully attribute it to your enemies and you get off with your own ploy of looking peaceful and harmless
n4r9 1 hours ago [-]
In which case what do they gain here?
toyg 48 minutes ago [-]
You can claim ownership via restricted channels, e.g. a phone call to key politicians, and rely on their self-interest to keep things quiet while understanding the threat.
In some cases, if the action is a bit too effective, you might even want to avoid it being pinned on you. Al Qaeda occasionally refused to claim ownership of things they very plainly did, and the Russians do it very often (e.g. when they shot down a Dutch passenger plane a few years ago).
CalRobert 1 hours ago [-]
Those famously anti-train climate activists…
f_devd 1 hours ago [-]
Farmer advocates are not climate activists, surprisingly they have a negative correlation
CalRobert 1 hours ago [-]
Agreed
wickedsight 2 hours ago [-]
Yeah, my bet is on the farmers. The locations where this happened are all pretty rural and farmers have announced havy actions today.
We in NL need to be more concerned about domestic terrorism than the Russians at the moment. Though I'm sure Russian money and bots are involved in some way.
ricardobeat 2 hours ago [-]
You think farmers are willing to risk the murder of hundreds of their fellow countrymen as a form of protest? That’s plain terrorism.
bo0tzz 1 hours ago [-]
Yes, they've already murdered people by causing accidents on the highway.
themaninthedark 5 minutes ago [-]
Are we allowed to call it terrorism now? Or just when it is farmers? I know that both climate activists and BLM have disrupted highways as well....
maxboone 2 hours ago [-]
Definitely, and destabilizing by proxy is still an attack
j-pb 2 hours ago [-]
Ah yes, climate activists are widely known for hating public transport especially trains.
Climate activists are definitely known for disliking fossil fuel plants - and there's one directly next to that.
I could see an activist naïvely thinking that this would sever that one power plant from the grid, making a clear anti-fossil statement. Still a bit of an odd choice (it's gas-powered, Germany has far dirtier lignite-powered ones), but not unthinkable.
mschuster91 2 hours ago [-]
if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck...
Russia started with the hybrid war psyops shit, they don't get to complain about false accusations.
maxboone 2 hours ago [-]
I'm not defending Russia, it's just that the farmers terrorist organisation has announced major disruptions today and has also set hay bales on fire to shut down highways.
For context: it's "Prinsjesdag" in the Netherlands which is when the budget is announced, and there are major changes to agriculture subsidies.
on_the_train 2 hours ago [-]
We've had a bunch of these acts of terrorism in Germany in the recent years. Mostly power, but also train and industrial targets. They all came from the same source, which is very much not Russian.
mschuster91 17 minutes ago [-]
lol come on, I'm German. Of course a lot of the terrorism was probably (Vulkangruppe) or proven (the DHL and airport incidents, Tiergartenmord, SUV Bauschaum) Russian.
The only thing that is probably something else is that guy from the last week shooting wires over transmission lines (lone wolf ecoterrorist), and the Nord Stream explosion which likely was Ukrainian.
Anyone blathering about "the far left" is probably either far right or a Russian shill.
boesboes 2 hours ago [-]
uhu, sure thing boris!
crote 2 hours ago [-]
It is indeed possible Russia is behind it, but considering a domestic farmers' terror group has told its followers to cause disruption today (as it is a politically-significant day), and those are definitely disrupting highways, chances are good they are also responsible for the railway disruptions.
And if this is supposed to be war, then by European standards it is incredibly mild.
alexejb 58 minutes ago [-]
I think of it the other way: EU politicians want war but are not able to say it out loud and clear. Instead we get a bunch of "russian sabotage" all over the place with flimsy evidence to back it. Get the simple people into a paranoid state and use it to justify decisions which are already made. Classic FUD.
And the people seem to swallow it.
jeltz 2 hours ago [-]
What implications? Why wouldn't they want an, in this case real, external enemy they could use to distract the people from their own failures?
stingraycharles 2 hours ago [-]
Perhaps the external enemy being able to do these things is, in fact, their own failure in a way.
jeltz 2 hours ago [-]
Not really, I do not buy that. Ukrainian intelligence can sabotage train tracks deep within Belarus and Russia. And given how convient it would be to blame Russia here I wonder why they do not.
embedding-shape 2 hours ago [-]
Yeah, not sure why not at least being upfront about the possibility is so hard. In Spain we've had train derailments, flocks of people being directed on social media to force themselves across borders, subterfuge deluxe everywhere and what not, yet the government is mostly silent and claim it's all unrelated, but it's hard to not also see the parallels across the continent and reach your own conclusions. But then also, don't wanna fall into some conspiracy theory trap either...
crote 2 hours ago [-]
Russia isn't the only group interested in doing terrorism in The Netherlands. Recently the Farmers Defense Force and Extinction Rebellion have caused far greater disruption.
Could it be Russia? Obviously. But in my opinion the odds are less than a coin flip.
embedding-shape 2 hours ago [-]
> Recently the Farmers Defense Force and Extinction Rebellion
Why derail trains though, especially in regards to the latter? Given it's one of the most environmental ways for transportation. Besides, groups like that tend to want to take responsibility, the whole point is to get attention to their groups.
maxboone 2 hours ago [-]
You're assuming rational goals instead of thinking in radical acts of terrorism.
Throwing paint at a painting does not help the environment, but it does create radical flank effects.
Blocking the highways does not help agriculture, but it does bring their problems in other people's home / discourse.
embedding-shape 1 hours ago [-]
You're misunderstanding why they do those things in the first place. You're referencing real activities here, how many of those activities you references people refused to take responsibility for doing?
Look at photos from these events you refer to, people are proudly holding banners and signs here, not trying to be anonymous and flee from police and intelligence services.
Have you never participated in political activism yourself, and you have no clue why you'd do those things you cite?
toyg 46 minutes ago [-]
It's a spectrum. You derail a train and nobody gets hurt? Shout it from the rooftops! You derail a train and people die? "Wasn't me, guv."
embedding-shape 26 minutes ago [-]
Please, do suggest this to any of these environmental activism groups and see how they'll laugh at you. You seriously think these people think like that??
toyg 14 minutes ago [-]
People fuck up, man. They don't plan to, but they do.
embedding-shape 4 minutes ago [-]
"Fucking up" in terms of "accidentally derailed a train more than wanted"? Sure, I used to do that too when I was a teenager...
crote 1 hours ago [-]
Stop, not derail. The saboteurs aren't physically damaging the railways: they are shorting the rails together, causing a fake train to be detected.
But indeed, XR is the least likely subject. They have stopped trains before, but that was a human barricade, and it was a coal train.
Theodores 23 minutes ago [-]
Groups such as Extinction Rebellion are easy to steer off course by the state into taking meaningless actions such as gluing themselves to London Underground trains.
Perhaps this is just as well. If Extinction Rebellion really wanted to take down the entire transport network, they could do so by 'accidentally' touring the big stations with a leaky rucksack filled with lead paint fragments or ground up asbestos tiles, to then tip off the press. This would probably reveal an unfortunate truth, that there was plenty of aforementioned toxins already on the network, from brake pads and paint of yesteryear. Nonetheless, some closure for the guys in hazmat suits would be needed.
dividedbyzero 1 hours ago [-]
And Russia is winning, they already have neutralized if not subjugated the US, but most of Europe is also heading towards that outcome, and fast. Russia is not this near omnipotent 5D chess mastermind behind all of the scenes in all of politics all across the West, but they are terrifyingly good at exploiting existing trends and influencing trajectories just so and they have been at it with great continuity over many decades. It's starting to really pay off. At this point, it's hard to imagine how the next German federal government could be anything else than either a completely dead-on-arrival coalition of polar opposites that only barely hangs on to keep the AfD out of government but will be unable to do anything at all, or an extremely Russia-friendly government the AfD is part of if not leads that is pretty much certain to continue within the EU what Trump started within NATO. Both outcomes serve Russia well, and the establishment has pretty much handed them that opportunity without meaningful resistance.
newAccount2025 15 minutes ago [-]
NATO is certainly weaker with the USA having lost her mind. But Russia seems to have gotten herself into a total quagmire in Ukraine and she is bleeding badly with no end in sight. Nobody is winning here.
2 hours ago [-]
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hohogo891 9 minutes ago [-]
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aerodog 1 hours ago [-]
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AmericanOP 2 hours ago [-]
Putin’s exit narrative requires escalation. Defeat vs Ukraine is a pathetic wound- “we would have won if it weren’t for.. europe” is preferable to narcissistic permanent victimhood.
Well this is natural, terrorism in Europe is almost entirely Russia-originating (and have always been, see drop to nearly zero after 1991 when Russia lost the capability).
bsoqk 1 hours ago [-]
Putin must be really happy - whatever happens in Europe, he's blamed for it, making him look omnipotent. Most countries would love to have that kind of power.
It’s so much more likely to be the farmers, but it's easier to blame Putin and do nothing about it than it is to stop ruining the farmers and risk angering the cosmopolitan politicians whose votes in the parliament you need.
cbg0 32 minutes ago [-]
I don't think he's very happy that his three day "special operation" is approaching five years.
alexejb 52 minutes ago [-]
Putin became a meme. He's almighty and weak at the same time. He's the Zar, Stalin AND Hitler in one person. He's been cloned at least a dozen times but seems to have a grave illness and will die soon. On the one hand it's funny to watch how people are losing their minds over it but on the other it just prevents a clear dialogue and assessment of a politician.
cindyllm 1 hours ago [-]
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assimpleaspossi 2 hours ago [-]
I don't understand. What does this have to do with HN, the typical topics, and the typical users who come here?
Kim_Bruning 14 minutes ago [-]
You're right, this is a political topic.
What one can do is provide accurate information on the one hand, and maybe flag the topic on the other.
n4r9 1 hours ago [-]
International politics is intellectually stimulating.
CalRobert 1 hours ago [-]
Nerds like trains. A fair few of us live in NL too.
pbkompasz 1 hours ago [-]
I think AI was mentioned in the article...
rebolek 1 hours ago [-]
By the upvotes - a lot.
hagbard_c 1 hours ago [-]
Yes, and that's one of the reasons politics - which this is - used to be shunned on this site. It is like catnip for those who have an opinion - whether agreeing or disagreeing - on the subject and quickly turns into a mud fight. In combination with the down-voting system on HN this gives rise to a strong and unhelpful herd mentality where those with itchy down-vote fingers quickly make opinions outside of their desired narrative fade to grey. Unfortunately this 'no politics' rule has never been free from bias even before the rise of The Orange Man and seems to have been dropped off the radar ever since. This only serves to increase the level of polarisation, the bitter fruits of which are ripe for the picking right here in this thread.
CrzyLngPwd 45 minutes ago [-]
Came for the news for nerds, got a blog from the BBC propaganda machine.
Anyway, I am surprised the BBC blogger didn't add north koreans and some linked it to porn on the internet.
pestatije 6 minutes ago [-]
the railway was hacked with a metal tube... perfectly suited news
CrzyLngPwd 4 minutes ago [-]
lol, nice try.
sedan_baklazhan 1 hours ago [-]
Browsing through comments I'm not really surprised. It seems like Russia is everything Europeans think about daily.
Guys, your railroads used to work very bad all the way along. Just fix them at last, and ensure safety.
birdsongs 1 hours ago [-]
> It seems like Russia is everything Europeans think about daily.
Brilliant reply. Maybe if they stop attacking half of Europe, we'll stop thinking about them daily.
sedan_baklazhan 1 hours ago [-]
Well.
Maybe Europe should stop attacking Russia then, come to think of it.
Oh well, that is completely different right?
Or, what do you mean? Any non-state-propaganda supporting your claim?
sedan_baklazhan 54 minutes ago [-]
>Russia just annexed parts of Europe?
Europe is not a country; this is nonsense.
Most European countries routinely take part in completely unprovoked agressions by the way.
>Or, what do you mean?
Every each case when Ukraine has used European weapons to attack Russia; also every case when European countries seized Russian ships.
birdsongs 4 minutes ago [-]
> Europe is not a country
I'm just using your own words, my dude:
> It seems like Russia is everything Europeans think about daily.
>Every each case when Ukraine has used European weapons to attack Russia; also every case when European countries seized Russian ships.
It's not an attack when you're defending against an invasion. Go take your weak propaganda-farm talking points elsewhere.
cbg0 33 minutes ago [-]
How is Europe attacking Russia? I haven't seen any of our soldiers or jets flying over Russia; We would have flattened St. Petersburg and Moscow years ago if we wanted to. In fact, before Putin's conquering ambitions we were doing a great amount of trade with Russia in a very peaceful way.
sedan_baklazhan 19 minutes ago [-]
Particularly, Europe is constantly trying to seize Russian ships.
Re: flattening Moscow and Petersburg: all "potential" threats are really pathetic.
"close to Renault's factory in the town of Cléon", which is now preparing to start manufacturing drones for the French military, in collaboration with Ukrainian military-industrial groups.
https://nos.nl/video/2631081-startkabels-van-spoor-bij-meppe... ("Startkabels van spoor bij Meppel weggehaald")
You have both the desired threat, but no concrete biases for an official response.
Also an uncertainty limits action - it might be a random event, it could even be a false flag.
One of the problem's here is narratives are being spun by multiple actors and it depends on who you believe.
No one can prove anything, for example, but anyone knows that people that piss Putin off, need to stay away from windows in high places.
It is really a rather common playbook of stoking fear and even instigating war not for direct outcomes that has been used innumerable times over history. Only it seems that the majority of people are incapable of seeing, accepting, or maybe just internalizing when they are being played, lied to, and manipulated for the benefit of others at their own expense.
One thing that logic would dictate though is that Russia would be extremely low on the list of suspects since they gain nothing by some minor event like this, are negatively affected in every manner possible by being in any way behind such actions, and they could simply just send barrages of missiles to hit actually meaningful targets if they ever become sick and tired of all the CIA/MI6 clowns thinking they can salami slice their way into conquering Russia and once the Germans and Poles have been whipped up to be the battering ram of minced meat again.
It's why we have so many catastrophic and calamitous events in our history because people never ask themselves who may be benefitting from the act that is immediately used to manipulate people through fear. In spite of having been told and explained a long time ago and many times since, you should always ask you who benefits, cui bono. Russia does not benefit from scaring the populace into supporting the murderous and war mongering governments and the maniacal ruling parasites that control them in order to profit from war as they send your children in to the meat grinder.
Or one could choose not to take this in isolation from all the acts of brazen and identified sabotage Russia does, slashing deep-sea cables in international waters with their shadow fleets, organizing psyop campaigns throughout the entire continent that can be traced back right to their government units, and so on :-)
They are known for actions that negatively affect them and everyone around. That's kinda their whole thing.
From what I read, the similarity ends in “both involved trains”. This chain of attacks seems to have used short metal pipes (“Footage published by Dutch public broadcaster NOS on Tuesday showed police carrying what appeared to be metal pipes - about 1.5 metres (5ft) long”) to short a connection, making safety systems signal “there’s a train there”, stopping trains further up the track.
The France incident involved a piece of rails heavy enough to cause derailment (“The rail fragment was estimated to weigh between 250 and 300 kilograms”)
My money is on this being a rogue farmers protest.
Volkswagen is laying off 100k of workers, because they can't make cars people can afford anymore... blame russia! Germans fed up with merz and vote afd? Russia! Macron doesn't even have 20% of support in polls anymore? Russia! Stub your pinky on the corner of the bed? russia!
...this after Russia has been targeting civilian targets in Ukraine from the first days of the invasion.
The pro-russian historic fanfiction asserts that "Putin was forced to war or NATO would have expanded to ukraine or something"
There is no conceivable scenario where Russians would have worse safety than what Putin's decision caused. Heck, the long range drones attacking Russia today would simple not exist.
People say trump is Putin's stooge, but honestly Putin looks like a western plant. Nobody else since Stalin has killed as many Russians than Putin.
And the Western-built railway system has been used for war/military reasons since its very inception (almost), it's how Prussia got the best over the Habsburgs at Sadowa in the 1860s. One could also say that Tsarist Russia not yet having a rail connection to Crimea just before that caused them to be defeated against the Western incursion at Sevastopol.
Bringing the war to them and getting the public to want their government to commit blood and treasure to doing something about it is a ferociously poor strategic decision from the Kremlin. "That Putin killed a 17 year old French girl on her way to school on the train" is unlikely to cause the public in the West to back down.
https://nos.nl/liveblog/2631038-nog-steeds-nieuwe-sabotageac... (Use google translate to read)
(I'd assume the BBC reporter to be aware that Prinsjesdag is today, and that they'd mention that fact in this article, but apparently not.)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwn8mjl31p5yo
[0] https://nos.nl/liveblog/2631038-hooibalen-in-brand-langs-sne...
[0] https://www.dutchnews.nl/2026/08/two-killed-on-a59-as-tracto...
For those who don't read Dutch and can't be bothered to translate the article: Germany has restarted border checks which at the time of writing of this article had caused 171 accidents, some of which lethal.
[1] https://www.gelderlander.nl/zevenaar/na-171-ongelukken-bij-d...
Can we keep on topic?
"There is no proof at this stage to link the flying bomb directly to Russia, which denies any role. But as well as the means and the motive, Moscow does have form. The BBC has seen details of the investigation into a plot in 2024 in which Russian-linked proxies in Poland and Lithuania not only handled drones and explosives but also delivered them to Germany."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgdmrxxkdxo
Get some critical media literacy and stop listening to NAFO trolls.
Provide them or stop being so defensive about it, being defensive just shows you got not substance to your claim. Show, don't tell, if you can't show then you might have to do some more thinking by yourself to figure out why you ended up that way.
It’s hard to prove these things of course but you have to ask yourself who benefits most from these kind of attacks and sabotage? Who benefits from a weakened and infighting Europe?
Hybrid warfare is by definition hard to attribute
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025/01/research-e...
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/sabotage-deutschland-bka...
The day on which the reigning monarch of the Netherlands addresses a joint session of the States-General of the Netherlands (consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives) to give the Speech from the Throne (Dutch: Troonrede), similar to the annual State of the Union in the United States or the British State Opening of Parliament. This speech sets out the main features of government policy for the coming parliamentary session.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prinsjesdag
If the garbage men started dumping the contents of garbage bags in public places I bet they will not be given a free pass.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%932026_Birmingham_b...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqxlxv0vvnxo
You are right in the sense that there is likely an underlying meddling causing these farmers to act this way. It does not excuse their actions.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjx2zgk7edlzo
Humans are useful, easily manipulated operatives in the medium AIs are conversant in and we already have evidence of agents doing exactly this in arguing for PR requests (likely with prompting by an operator but still).
I was like hmmmm what timeline am I in now?
Some local context: Today is "prinsjesdag" when the budget is announced. Protests are common, particularly when sensitive decisions are made. There are multiple organized protest movements in the country that have used physical force in the past and some of them had announced protests for today.
Could it be Russia? Yes. But local protests seem significantly more likely. Moreover, if I were Putin I wouldn't expose my foreign agents this physically. I would use them in much more insidious ways such as actually starting or supporting these protest movements. In a similar vein: Could any shooting in the US be caused by foreign agents? Maybe. But usually there is a much simpler explanation; guns and bitterness.
You are jumping to the assumption that foreign agents wouldn't be exposed, but any willing idiot can be bought to conduct such activity. Recent research in Denmark showed that sabotage comes, most likely, from locals, persuaded by foreign actors.
So two things could be true at once. A local 'protestor', disengaged through some issue (whether climate, farming or anything else), persuaded to join some 'resistance' by anyone.
I don't expect this to be supported by local protesting groups, like FDF or XR, either. Way too risky, media-wise.
https://www.rtvslo.si/crna-kronika/na-zelezniski-progi-iz-ce...
No idea when it would start but there are only two outcomes I can see:
* Russia doesn't use nukes and get flattened. They don't have the troops, material or finances to deploy on even half the frontline.
* Russia use nukes and get flattened (and so does a chunk of EU). French doctrine when it come to nuclear warfare is quite agressive. Not idea how london would react, but major russian cities and/or ressource hubs would see retalations on kind.
I don't know how much support or opposition from the population such actions would have, but people are getting fed up with external threat burning so much of our governments time and attention on external issues (brexit, babysitting trump, russian threat) that internal issues get further pushed to the future.
I would add 'Western-' to that. The Eastern Europeans are keenly aware, have been for years.
- Dutch person.
It seems as if one ambiguates the other.
Zuständigkeitspingpong
competence table tennis
"responsibility table tennis" would be a better fit.
Competence in english translates to the skill side of the word
I am not surprised.
> competence table tennis
Magnificent!
Interestingly this mechanism contributed a lot to Brexit in my opinion, whenever there was legislation the politicians wanted to enact but knew would be unpopular with the voters they'd blame the EU and wring their hands saying there was nothing to be done, while in the background gold-plating the legislation far beyond what the EU was even asking for. This also made it easy for populists to point to many absurd examples of the EU being comically bureaucratic, when a lot of the more nonsensical ones were literally domestic additions. When the referendum happened, the consequences were obvious to everyone.
While no Brexiteer myself, I personally would want to see the European Parliament get a lot more powers and influence before I threw my wholehearted support behind rejoining. Half the problem with the EU is that it's seen as not particularly democratic as a place for legislation to originate, and giving the elected organ more power (including the power to propose legislation in its own right, and dismiss legislation proposed by the Commission with much more prejudice) would go a long way to addressing that I think. The Parliament needs to be more, well, parliamentary in how it functions.
(Some media literally blamed putin because people voted for afd in the recent state election in germany).
We’re under constant attacks from Russia… drones, sabotage, cyberattacks, propaganda campaigns derailing our elections…
I’m sick of it.
Edit: some context as I'm looking like a Russian shill now, which I understand. Today is the day that the budget gets announced, and the farmer terrorist organization (farmer defence force) have announced actions - and have disrupted highways by setting bales of hay on fire, and all the disruptions happened where farmer concentrations are high.
Regardless, the situation is dire, and probably either the tankies or terror farmers are being helped by Russian destabilizing forces, it's too early to call this disruption an action from the FSB.
I don't know enough about dutch politics but in my country if the blue collar anti-regulation people wanted to annoy the white collar pro-regulation people without annoying other blue collar people stopping the trains would accomplish that pretty handily.
>and definitely not in a way that could result in deaths.
They laid pipes and jumper cables across the tracks causing the signals to be red.
In some cases, if the action is a bit too effective, you might even want to avoid it being pinned on you. Al Qaeda occasionally refused to claim ownership of things they very plainly did, and the Russians do it very often (e.g. when they shot down a Dutch passenger plane a few years ago).
We in NL need to be more concerned about domestic terrorism than the Russians at the moment. Though I'm sure Russian money and bots are involved in some way.
I could see an activist naïvely thinking that this would sever that one power plant from the grid, making a clear anti-fossil statement. Still a bit of an odd choice (it's gas-powered, Germany has far dirtier lignite-powered ones), but not unthinkable.
Russia started with the hybrid war psyops shit, they don't get to complain about false accusations.
For context: it's "Prinsjesdag" in the Netherlands which is when the budget is announced, and there are major changes to agriculture subsidies.
The only thing that is probably something else is that guy from the last week shooting wires over transmission lines (lone wolf ecoterrorist), and the Nord Stream explosion which likely was Ukrainian.
Anyone blathering about "the far left" is probably either far right or a Russian shill.
And if this is supposed to be war, then by European standards it is incredibly mild.
Could it be Russia? Obviously. But in my opinion the odds are less than a coin flip.
Why derail trains though, especially in regards to the latter? Given it's one of the most environmental ways for transportation. Besides, groups like that tend to want to take responsibility, the whole point is to get attention to their groups.
Throwing paint at a painting does not help the environment, but it does create radical flank effects.
Blocking the highways does not help agriculture, but it does bring their problems in other people's home / discourse.
Look at photos from these events you refer to, people are proudly holding banners and signs here, not trying to be anonymous and flee from police and intelligence services.
Have you never participated in political activism yourself, and you have no clue why you'd do those things you cite?
But indeed, XR is the least likely subject. They have stopped trains before, but that was a human barricade, and it was a coal train.
Perhaps this is just as well. If Extinction Rebellion really wanted to take down the entire transport network, they could do so by 'accidentally' touring the big stations with a leaky rucksack filled with lead paint fragments or ground up asbestos tiles, to then tip off the press. This would probably reveal an unfortunate truth, that there was plenty of aforementioned toxins already on the network, from brake pads and paint of yesteryear. Nonetheless, some closure for the guys in hazmat suits would be needed.
Solovyov propaganda is pure nuclear revenge fantasy: https://youtu.be/dA4RP3uID6Q?is=ApmFQtgZvY7mWajP
https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-jr-wedding-b...
It’s so much more likely to be the farmers, but it's easier to blame Putin and do nothing about it than it is to stop ruining the farmers and risk angering the cosmopolitan politicians whose votes in the parliament you need.
What one can do is provide accurate information on the one hand, and maybe flag the topic on the other.
Anyway, I am surprised the BBC blogger didn't add north koreans and some linked it to porn on the internet.
Brilliant reply. Maybe if they stop attacking half of Europe, we'll stop thinking about them daily.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukrai...
Or here, where Russia just annexed parts of Europe?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Ukrainian_war
Or perhaps one of the hundreds of instances in:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_sabotage_operations_in...
Or, what do you mean? Any non-state-propaganda supporting your claim?
Europe is not a country; this is nonsense. Most European countries routinely take part in completely unprovoked agressions by the way.
>Or, what do you mean?
Every each case when Ukraine has used European weapons to attack Russia; also every case when European countries seized Russian ships.
I'm just using your own words, my dude:
> It seems like Russia is everything Europeans think about daily.
>Every each case when Ukraine has used European weapons to attack Russia; also every case when European countries seized Russian ships.
It's not an attack when you're defending against an invasion. Go take your weak propaganda-farm talking points elsewhere.
Re: flattening Moscow and Petersburg: all "potential" threats are really pathetic.