The British Defence Secretary has warned that Vladimir Putin has a “naval programme” which is specifically designed to “sabotage” the UK’s underwater “critical national infrastructure.”
Admiral Lord West who is the former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Security and Counter Terrorism has also warned that Putin could order a strike to wipe out the UK’s power supply.
Lord West who is the former Royal Navy chief warned that Putin “may have already put down sleeper explosives.”
Ben Wallace warned last week that Russia does have the “intent and ability” to sabotage the UK’s underwater energy and communication lines and also that of their “adversaries.”
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Wallace who is a former British Army officer said that Russia does “have a specific naval programme designed to both look at and potentially sabotage or attack critical national infrastructure belonging to its adversaries.
“It has a number of submarines and other pieces of equipment and spy ships and everything else specifically designed for that purpose.”
Dr Dwayne Ryan Menezes, of the Polar Research & Policy Initiative, said if Russia were to attack the UK’s critical infrastructure then this could “cause internet outages and power blackouts.”
He added, “As damage to cables can take days or weeks to fix, it could even lead to potential civil unrest and riots.”
Admiral Lord West said that the UK should invest more heavily in onshore wind, adding, “It’s much harder for any hostile power to target onshore wind.”
Rob Wood, the managing director of renewables developer Community Windpower said, “The destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines starkly demonstrates how exposed subsea infrastructure assets can be.
“As Lord West highlights, geopolitical risks must now be front and center of energy policy.
“The Government needs to lift the onshore wind planning moratorium in England and axe the windfall tax on new solar and wind generation to deliver safe and secure home-grown energy supplies.”
Off the coast in northern Scotland the Russian Admiral Vladimirsky has been patrolling in British waters examining key sites such as the North Sea pipelines prompting fears this could be a possible sabotage operation.
Liberal Democrat MP Jamie Stone raised concerns and called on Wallace to answer to the House of Commons what the government’s response is going to be.
The MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency in northern Scotland, said, “It is not a trawler, it is not a pleasure boat, it is a spy ship complete with armed guards.
“It has been snooping around the Beatrice oil field and examining the interconnector to my constituency.
“It has been snooping around the oil stations in the North Sea and the oil pipelines.”
Stone made reference to the Nord Stream gas pipeline which mysteriously blew up last year.
The MP said, “We all know what happened in recent times in the Baltic with the gas pipeline.
“I do not take kindly to this happening and I regard this as a very important security issue.
“It affects the United Kingdom and our security in terms of energy.”
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