These days, barely a week goes by in Europe without a drone sighting, a fire or a power outage being blamed on Russia. We’re told that these incidents are all part of a relentless, and escalating, “hybrid war” that Moscow is waging against the continent. But does the evidence support Western claims that Russia is engaged in a systematic hybrid war against Europe? As I argue in my first piece for @RStatecraft, not really. Most claims of Russian involvement turned out to be establishment-amplified speculation that collapsed under basic scrutiny. In many cases, there is no evidence the incidents themselves actually even happened (drones supposedly swarming European airports, etc.). So is this just a case of collective panic fuelled by click-addicted media? Or, given that the claims of a Russian “hybrid war” against Europe appear to rest on little more than propaganda, is there a concerted effort by the EU-NATO establishment to condition citizens to believe that Europe is under attack from Russia? In Italy, the expression “strategy of tension” evokes a dark period, from the late 60s to the early 80s, in which intelligence services and secret paramilitary networks operating under NATO auspices inflated the terrorist threat to frighten the electorate, including by engaging in terrorist acts that in some cases were then blamed on the left. European leaders should be wary of reviving such a strategy. Read the article here: responsiblestatecraft.org/hy…