Lindberg: Russia jams GPS, uses Belarus and Wagner in hybrid warfare

Russia has jammed GPS in northern Finland, causing thousands of flights to be affected, says retired Finnish general Jarmo Ilmari Lindberg.

In the interview with The Geopost, he points out that these blockages come from Kaliningrad, while adding that there is concern that Russia may push the migrants, who now live in Russia, close to the Finnish border.

The retired general in this interview also talks about the importance of Finland’s membership in NATO, as well as Russia’s reactions after that. He also sees with optimism the recent US assistance to Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.

Full interview:

The Geopost: Finland and Sweeden are new members of NATO, what does this mean for your countries and what does this mean for Russia?

After the Russian attack against Ukraine, there was a very sudden change in the mentality of Finnish nationals regarding NATO membership. And it used to be for years so that around 20-25% of the population was pro-NATO and around almost double that were against and suddenly within less than a week the numbers turned around and then there was a very fast political program or process to have the decision-making to apply for NATO membership and Finland has been a member now for one year. We were very ready for NATO because of all the exercises, all the procurement that we had done, so Finland and the Finnish military was very interoperable with NATO. And we started the membership process with Sweden. Sweden’s accession process was a bit slower than Finland’s process, but now also Sweden is a member of NATO, and the important thing is that all the Nordic nations are now in NATO which means that there is a new strategic situation in the Nordic area where NATO is now going through the NDPP process which is done every four years and that’s about the kind of military capabilities for the nations there, so now there can be a holistic plan for the military capabilities for the Nordics.

NATO is changing the operational plans from the older type of plans in the regional operational plans, and this change is in process at the moment, so that means that there can be a regional operational plan for the Nordic area. Then, there is the NATO command structure, the Joint Forces Command, Brunsdom and Norfolk have been discussed whether the Nordic nations are under Brunsdom or Norfolk, and if there are sub-headquarters for the land, naval and air components.

Finland has volunteered and has suggested that there could be a land sub-headquarter or sub-component in Finland in the future. And this is now under discussion and the decision has not been made yet.

And then finally, what it means for Finland and Sweden is also the security of supply, the logistic plans, they can be streamlined in the area, the whole Nordic area, which means that this is a stronger, better coordinated defense for the whole Nordics and this is also very important for the whole Baltic area, Baltic nations and the Baltic Sea. Now all nations around the Baltic Sea are NATO members, which is very important in the area.

And for Russia, what does it mean for Russia? So now Russia has to take into account that the defense in the whole Nordic area and also as I mentioned the Baltic area is coordinated.

The Baltic nations have been in NATO for years, also Norway and Denmark, but now Finland and Sweden being in NATO, now the whole area and the defense of the whole area up there in the north is better coordinated for the future and in that way, it is a stronger defense.

The Geopost: In regards to the Russian influence, what is the situation in the Nordic states, especially in Finland, where you come from?

We anticipated that obviously Russia would react to the membership of Finland and Sweden, and they stated it several times, but there were no strong reactions after Finland’s accession to NATO a year ago. There has been negative comments from Russia, several times from the Russian media, Russian leadership about Finnish NATO membership. They have closed some consulates in Russia, and Finland has closed their consulate in Turku in the south-western Finland. Russia has told that they will reactivate the old Leningrad military district for the future and that they will enhance their defense east of Finland and east of the Baltic nations and that remains to be seen.

There has been a lot of GPS navigation jamming up north, also affecting Finnish airspace, the Baltic area, civil airlines, so thousands of flights have been affected with the GPS jamming. A lot of that seems to be coming out from Kaliningrad.

At the moment there is a concern that Russia might be pushing immigrants, people that are now residing in Russia to the Finnish border. This already happened last winter and because of that the Finnish eastern border has been totally closed for several months. It has now been extended and there is a new law being prepared in the parliament to give Finland more options to deal with this concern that there might be more people coming across the border when the snow has been melted and then they could more easily come to Finland.

There was an incident with the Chinese ship ” Newnew Polar Bear” that went through the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Finland and its anchor broke a gas pipeline and electric transfer cables and it has been investigated but the source or the ownership or what might be behind that incident has not been fully resolved.

So, then if I would list it there, then there is kind of information warfare, there is jamming of the GPS signal, there is concern with the immigration on the Finnish Eastern border, there’s concern with the infrastructure, critical infrastructure in the area and I have not mentioned anything about cyber, but I would then show you that there is a fairly long list of actions and possible actions in the future.

The Geopost: You are coming from military career; how do you see this Russian aggression in Ukraine?

The situation was a bit more optimistic around a year ago, when Ukraine was receiving a lot of military assistance from the West, Leopard main battle tanks, long-range precision-guided weapons, military training. And this winter has been a bit more challenging for Ukraine because there has been not that much military assistance for Ukraine. And now it was extremely important that the United States made a decision to give 61 billion dollars aid to Ukraine, which is more than all the previous assistance combined, and now it remains to be seen how fast the equipment gets into Ukraine and to the front to help Ukraine.

Unfortunately, Russia has been ramping up the military and the defense equipment production and also has been recruiting new soldiers to the front line. Where we are now at the moment is that Russia is pressing Ukraine in the Donbas area and Ukraine really needs the new capabilities, more weapons, artillery shells, missiles, air defense capabilities and hopefully starting sometime in the summer time the new F-16 fighter jets.

So, for Ukraine at the moment the situation is that they need to have the military equipment in country and they need to train the new personnel, they change the law so that they can mobilize younger people to the front.

The summer is kind of critical and obviously of concern that might there be something that the Russia might try to activate a larger attack or maybe even so that now that the United States made the decision for the equipment to be sent into Ukraine that they would now already in the late springtime try to ramp up some kind of a new offensive operation.

The Geopost: General, how does Russia use proxy states to attack third countries?

Well, they can use different type of proxies, so whether they are organizations like the Wagner, whether they are countries like Belorussia, and whether they are some other types of entities, that remains to be seen, so they could use organized crime as their proxies for cyber-attacks, because then that would kind of cover the state activities if the actors were non-state actors and they would be other type of organizations. And then the case of Byelorussia being such a close partner still with Russia then remains to be seen what is the future role for Byelorussia in the operation.

Russia has had exercises with Belarus, they stated that they will put nuclear weapons into Belarus, which is a serious development.

Some of the Wagner soldiers were moved to Belarus, so there have been negative developments, and then it remains to be seen what President Lukashenko is willing to do in the future in Belarus, because also from Belarus there have been immigrants pushed into Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, as a hybrid operation.

So, there are negative incidents, the Belorussia and the leadership didn’t go along with Russia in the initial attack into Ukraine, and now that the war is ongoing in the Donbas area, and that is a long way from Belarus.

Maybe, regarding actions to Ukraine and the land warfare, in the Ukraine, mainly, in the near future, is not so tightly connected into the Belarus, but as a staging area and whatever there are other capabilities, then Russia could still use Belarus in the future.

/The Geopost