Read previewRussia's threat to the subsea cables the West relies on for the internet is growing more acute amid surveillance from a specialist undersea sabotage unit, a NATO official said. "Allies have long warned of the risk that Russian spy ships and sabotage vessels patrolling subsea cable routes could pose to critical underwater infrastructure." Known by its Russian acronym, GUGI, the unit's goal is to surveil and possibly destroy the undersea cables the West relies on for the internet. But as the world has become more dependent on internet data, the potential for disruption caused by sabotage has become greater. Sybille Reuter via Getty imagesThere is already evidence that Russian units may have tampered with undersea cables, with experts saying that Russian units likely played a role in the disappearance of miles of the cables near Lofoten off the coast of Norway in 2021.

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Persons: —, Dmitry Medvedev, Sidharth, GUGI, Kaushal, Sybille Reuter, Mark Cancian Organizations: Service, NATO, Business, Russia's General Staff, Directorate, Allies, CNN, General Staff, Research, Pentagon, Russia, Russian Ministry of Defense, Getty, CSIS, Atlantic Council Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Europe, North America, Lofoten, Norway, NATO, Washington ,