The Daily Mail (U.K.) reports a pair of suspicious fires in Russia, one at a weapons research and manufacturing facility, the other at the country's largest maker of industrial solvents. At least one Russian observer noted that it appeared "a pattern was emerging."
If Putin's allegation that Ukraine is really part of Russia has any validity, saboteurs from Ukraine would find passing as Russians relatively easy. Many Ukrainians speak Russian as their first (or only) language, and at least some of these are Ukraine patriots. It isn't especially far-fetched to imagine such individuals infiltrating Russia with stolen or forged papers and engaging in sabotage.
It takes very little of this to get people suspecting and reporting their neighbors and people whose behavior seems "odd." Somewhere the ghost of Lavrenti Beria chuckles appreciatively.
