Lessons from History about Russian Sabotage

Abstract

Historical information about Soviet sabotage planning is instructive in analyzing Russian sabotage operations today. The Soviet KGB was responsible during the Cold War for preparing target packages on critical infrastructure sites and planning operations against them to be executed during periods of increased political tension preceding war, in what Soviet planners called the “special period”. Sabotage operations, which are executed during the “special period”, are planned and executed differently from disinformation operations, which are executed routinely across the peacetimewartime spectrum. The prevalence of Russian-sponsored sabotage operations in Europe since 2023 is an indication that Russian intelligence services have returned to Soviet-era planning and thresholds for executing sabotage operations.