Russian agents operating from fake fishing boats were “almost certainly” behind internet cables off Shetland being cut, a leading military intelligence expert said. Crucial communications lines were severed at two points in October, sparking a major police incident with web access, phones and cash machines on the island all affected.
At the time the official explanation was that it was a fishing accident. But in an interview with the Sunday Mail, Colonel Philip Ingram MBE said Putin may have been behind the incident – to send a message to the UK. It emerged last week that Russia has a programme to sabotage North Sea wind farms and communication cables off Scotland’s coast using a fleet of vessels disguised as fishing trawlers.
A joint probe by public broadcasters in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland has accused Russia of carrying underwater surveillance equipment to map key sites for possible sabotage. Ingram, a former military intelligence officer, said: “Almost certainly it was the Russians sending a message to the UK that they could do this.
