https://www.ejiltalk.org/christmas-day- ... jwTCy6Y9BQ

Here's an overview of russian sabotage acts on the Finnish Gulf. Basically they use ship anchors to damage underwater cables and pipelines.

I can't read the whole article, but *uneducated layman mode* why would Russia commit these acts?

Sow discord in Europe? Petty revenge for all the sanctions against them because of Ukraine? Anger about Finland and Sweden joining NATO? I've been following along. Crazy stuff... Finland seized a Russian oil tanker that did some of this damage. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/finland-oil-tanker-power-internet-cable-outage-1.7419168 There's a lot of crazy stuff going on.

But if the objective is to sow discord in Europe, wouldn't it be counterproductive to Russia because Europe would collectively see these acts as evidence of Russia being a dick?
Or of the objective is to vent anger at the Scandy's joining NATO, i'm not sure what that would achieve.

I am woefully out of touch with politics, so i'm possibly missing a the big picture here. A few years back I lost faith in all forms of government and journalism, so my default stance on everything these days is to trust nothing - almost the point that I believe the opposite of any narrative is more truthful than the narrative itself.

Hence I find it easier to imagine that the West has more interest in that kind of sabotage than Russia. Because the net effect serves the West better than Russia.

For a while this damage was happening and nobody was sure who was behind it, or if it was maybe an accident. So there was plausible deniability. I believe that ship the Fins seized ended up having Russian spy equipment on board, so any ambiguity quickly vanished. That said, sure, anyone could be behind it. Russia is known for doing aggressive, saber-rattling things to express their power. Just recently they had an S400 missile system do a radar block on a NATO aircraft. I could pull a bunch more examples out if necessary. Still, it's not like they're alone. China does the same things against Hong Kong and the Philippines. The west is currently supplying Ukraine with weapons that are killing Russians. They may see it as a tit-for-tat, or just business as usual.

Or... alternately... it's actually the lizard people from Mars that are preparing to invade Norway to turn it into their new home. Oh woe unto them when winter comes and they all die from the cold.

Now that you mention it, I can see how the Martian Lizards see Norway as a potential homeland, given the physical similarity with Norwegian people. Or is that Belgians?

Yes, I see what you mean. For whatever reason, the Russian military/covert forces may have a longstanding directive to simply make their presence felt by being a nuisance (by whatever means). The aim of which is to not appear a pushover to any expansionist / rival nearby powers.

In fact that's what I perceive the was in Ukraine to be. Essentially an act of "you've pissed us off enough now, so we have to appear aggressive and reactive to deter you from further expansion".
Or of course, it could simply be pure Russian expansionism.
The thing is, I know all to well the game the West plays geopolitically.
It could simply be 2 powers, both being expansionist - but adopting different motives.

Up until recently I'd say the US was more interested in exerting influence without really expanding. That's changed though with all the stupid Greenland / Canada / Panama Canal bullshit. So yea.. you may be right. Always someone trying to expand somewhere. I just want to go terraform Mars or something.