What is different today is the deteriorating security environment between the west and Russia and China – and a spate of incidents in the Baltic sea that have forced a hasty military reassessment and a new security effort across northern Europe.
Britain’s response to Russian ‘spy ship’ is game of political messaging – for now Deteriorating security environment and incidents in Baltic have forced military reassessment in northern Europe.
So when the British defence secretary, John Healey, authorised a Royal Navy Astute-class attack sub to surface close to the Russian “spy ship” Yantar south of Cornwall in November, it was unusual enough.
At the beginning of the first world war, Britain cut several German wireless cables, forcing Berlin to route its communications over connections London could easily intercept.
It was, Healey said, conducted “strictly as a deterrent measure”, as was his decision to accuse the Kremlin of spying on the location of undersea communication and utility cables that connect Britain to the world.
