In a The Hill article about Russian hybrid warfare currently directed at NATO countries, author Elizabeth Braw who has written The Defender’s Dilemma: Identifying and Deterring Gray-Zone Aggression, is quoted as follows.
These provocations are hard to detect and predict. And there are no clear guidelines for a response. The reason there’s no punishment is because it’s not a military attack, so we don’t have a rule book for how to respond.There’s also a major challenge of assigning blame. It took seven years for Czech authorities to point to Russia as behind an arson attack in 2014. We can’t respond in kind, and issuing condemnations doesn’t exactly frighten the perpetrator.
Why can't we respond in kind? We can certainly turn our hackers loose on crippling their systems.
If NATO intelligence agencies don't have operatives who can pass for Russians, who can infiltrate and plant incendiary devices with delayed fuses, they certainly should have them. And a handful of sugar lumps in a fuel tank can disable a vehicle.
We could repurpose fentanyl and heroin captured at our border or taken from dealers and, through cut-outs, provide it to dealers in Russia. There is lots of mischief creative minds can cause in Russia and nations friendly to Russia, with deniability at least thinly preserved.
