UK fears Russia will cut submarine cables to disrupt global financial transactions

(Baonghean.vn)- On December 15, Chief of the General Staff of the Royal British Army Stuart Peach said that the UK and its NATO allies need to protect undersea cables from the possibility of the Russian navy launching a catastrophic attack that could disrupt global financial transactions worth trillions of dollars.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: AP

“There is a new threat to our way of life, which is the vulnerability of undersea cables,” Mr Peach told the BBC.

Mr Peach said that Russian President Vladimir Putin's directive to modernize the Russian navy, once a powerful force in the former Soviet Union, now poses a serious threat to Western communications channels.

“In addition to new warships and submarines, Russia continues to improve its unconventional and information warfare capabilities,” said the Chief of the Royal Army General Staff.

Currently, 95% of global communications and $10 trillion worth of daily financial transactions are carried by global ocean and undersea cables.

Russia has consistently rejected Western concerns about its belligerence, although Kremlin supporters have welcomed President Putin's restoration of Moscow's influence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991./.

Lan Ha

(According to Reuters)