Russia effective in hybrid warfare, its intelligence services more intensive than Soviet ones - Czech President

Czech President Petr Pavel notes that he is concerned about Russia’s hybrid activities in European countries, including the Czech Republic, which, in his opinion, are effective.

"We usually call it hybrid warfare. And Russia is quite effective in this hybrid activity in Europe. And they are very active in all European countries, including the Czech Republic," Pavel said in an interview with the BBC published on Monday.

According to him, the Russian Federation invests in media sources, in social networks, the result of which was evident in the elections in Romania and a number of other countries. "This is the presentation of articles, this is the influence on some politicians, this is the support of some political parties. They abuse the openness of democracies, the democratic system. They abuse access to the media. They abuse new technologies, artificial intelligence and create a virtual reality in social networks that almost looks like real human beings, but in fact these are fake accounts controlled by artificial intelligence," the Czech President noted.

Pavel noted that after losing the arms race with the West, the Russians have taken the approach that "if you can't be stronger than your opponent, let's try to make them weaker." "This is what they do through espionage, through sabotage, through subversion, through cyber attacks, through psychological or information operations or disinformation campaigns. This is what they do in a very coordinated way," he noted.

According to the Czech President, the USSR and the Russians "if they were very good at anything, it was intelligence, espionage and foreign services." "Therefore, I think that they certainly did not reduce their activities in these areas, but on the contrary, they increased them," Pavel stated.