Today minor low-level attacks are taken much more seriously.

The Gaze reports on it according to FT.

In July last year, DHL parcels exploded at logistics centers in the UK, Poland, and Germany. Each explosion was so powerful that it could have brought down a cargo plane if it had occurred on board. As the security services discovered at the time, the organizers were saboteurs acting on the instructions of the Russian Federation and had 6 kg of explosives at their disposal. This was sufficient to proceed to the next stage of the plan, which security officials disclosed to the Financial Times. The final stage involved attacking flights to the United States and causing greater damage to the aviation industry than any terrorist act since the attacks on the World Trade Center.

According to officials, this was just one of many cases where a coordinated and secret campaign of sabotage led by Moscow nearly caused disaster. The publication noted that Russia has sown chaos across the continent and continues to pose an increasing threat to human life.

Intelligence and police leaders have prevented attempts to derail crowded trains, set fire to shopping malls, release water from dams, and poison the water supply. And these are only the cases we know about.

“The first thing to keep in mind is that we still don't fully understand everything that's going on. What the public knows is just the tip of the iceberg... There are still a lot of things that governments have decided not to talk about,” says Keith Giles, a Russia expert at Chatham House.

What a year ago was characterized as “minor” low-level attacks on vulnerable European targets is now interpreted as a much more serious threat. For border states such as Poland, for example, it is now a fact that Russia poses as great a threat to civilian life in Europe as Islamic terrorism, which has been the main concern of the continent's domestic intelligence services for the past two decades.

As the scale of Russia's aggression in Europe has become more apparent, “hawks” in intelligence circles across the continent are now asking themselves whether this is a strategic escalation rather than mere tactical opportunism. Many in the intelligence community now believe that Russia's targets, the risks it is willing to take, and its apparent goals reflect more than just a reaction to the dynamics of the war in Ukraine.

Some intelligence reports point to long-term planning. Although a large number of Russian spies have been expelled from Europe in recent years, the Kremlin services are trying to infiltrate European states again with the help of trained professionals, even though they are bombarding the continent with sporadic attacks through intermediaries and criminals.

The head of one of Europe's leading intelligence services says his agents are now watching Russian agents surveying road bridges, presumably with the aim of blowing them up. He notes that railways across the continent are also being actively surveyed to identify weak spots. His service and others are also tracking Russia's attempts to infiltrate highly skilled “sleeper” saboteurs into European countries.

More detailed recent assessments of Russian sabotage activities in Europe, according to another official, are increasingly being viewed in the light of NATO's 2023 Joint Threat Assessment, a classified report circulated among the heads of the Alliance's defense departments, as Russia preparing its army and economy for a possible hot war with Europe by 2029.

But this is a complex issue, the FT notes. By its very nature, Russia's sabotage campaign in Europe is vague and difficult to understand. Aggressive but clumsy attempts to sow chaos may reflect the dynamics inherent in a sprawling authoritarian state, where every official desperately tries to demonstrate initiative and achievement to their superiors, rather than revealing any doctrine or plan. Officials and lawmakers are also wary of doing Russia's work for it: everyone agrees that public fear, political para in goals of the campaign.

But some are beginning to speak out. Last week, the chairman of NATO's military committee, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, told the FT that the alliance was considering much more decisive measures in response to Russia's covert violence, including preemptive strikes as a means of deterrence.

In recent weeks and months, Russian drones have flown over Poland and Romania, while unidentified UAVs have caused chaos at airports and military bases across the continent. Other incidents include GPS jamming, incursions by fighter jets and military ships, and an explosion on a Polish railway line used to deliver military aid to Ukraine.

As the Gaze reported earlier Poland Warns Russia May Escalate Sabotage Following Railway Explosion.

Also read Russian Propaganda Seeks to Pin Rail Sabotage on Ukraine, Polish Security Confirms.