Kremlin will expand conflict in global space using hybrid methods – international expert Voyger

He shared his opinions with Espreso TV.

Mark Voyger commented on Russia's recent information attacks, in which Moscow began to accuse the West of blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline, taking into account that the incident itself occurred long before the current information attacks by Russia.

"This is very logical from the point of view of Russian hybrid warfare, because the information component is the main one in the so-called Gerasimov doctrine, who is now the commander-in-chief in Russia. On the battlefield, Russians are almost a total failure, and they have not and will not have any serious gains. Therefore, it is logical that the Russian command and the Kremlin are trying to move the conflict in a hybrid way: using drones, stirring up the situation in Moldova. And now the accusations of destroying Nord Stream. This propaganda campaign is aimed at discrediting Ukraine, especially in Germany, to show that Ukrainians destroyed or ruined this major project, so the Germans and Europe had a gas crisis by the beginning of winter," the international expert explained.

Voyger pointed out that the information component here is directly related to political pressure.

"This war, unfortunately, is being waged in Ukraine in a conventional way, but in the global and European space it is a hybrid war, meaning that one of the elements is conventional, but the other is informational – how to politically shake up the situation. Accordingly, there will probably be more such provocations. And new cyberattacks will be launched. Therefore, we can expect that the authors of the hybrid doctrine, Gerasimov and his team, and, of course, the Kremlin, if they fail to achieve any progress, will expand the conflict using hybrid methods. And there will be no victory for Russia, the victory will be yours," said the former advisor to the retired US Army commander in Europe Ben Hodges.

•  On the night of September 26, 2022, a sudden drop in pressure occurred in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. On September 27, it was reported that gas from the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline had spilled into the Baltic Sea on the eve of the launch of the Baltic Sea pipeline. At the same time, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that the damage to the Russian Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea was the result of deliberate actions.

• Later it became known that on September 26, a man-made explosion of about 700 kg of TNT equivalent occurred on the routes of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called the damage to the Nord Stream pipeline a sabotage.

• Subsequently, Swedish intelligence services confirmed the sabotage at Nord Stream and searched for those responsible for the explosions. At the same time, German investigators stated that they had no evidence that Russia was behind the explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines.

• NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that it is still unknown who was involved in the explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September 2022.

• The tanker that was maneuvering suspiciously in the area of the sabotage has appeared in Western investigations

• The media in the United States and Germany have investigated the Nord Stream accident, seeing it as a trace of pro-Ukrainian forces, but officials in the countries advise waiting for the results of the investigation. 

• The President's Office denied Ukraine's involvement in the explosions at the Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea.

• Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov denied that Ukrainians were involved in the explosion of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.