Slashdot Mirror
The UK is Practicing Cyberattacks That Could Black Out Moscow (qz.com)
British defense officials say they have practiced cyber war games that could shut off electricity in Russia's capital, the Sunday Times (paywall) reports. From a report: The measures are part of a wider range of strategies to hit back at an increasingly assertive Russia -- accused of interfering with US elections, cyberattacks on Western targets, and poisoning a former spy on UK soil -- without resorting to a full-blown nuclear attack. "If they sank our aircraft carrier with a nuclear-tipped torpedo, what is our response? There's nothing between sinking their submarine and dropping a nuclear weapon on northern Kamchatka," one senior source told the Sunday Times. "This is why cyber is so important; you can go on the offensive and turn off the lights in Moscow to tell them that they are not doing the right things." Military planners are looking for options if Russian president Vladimir Putin tests NATO's resolve by seizing small islands belonging to Estonia, taking control of Libya's oil reserves, or using "irregular forces" to attack troops, according to the report.
Certainly increasing granularity allows for better proportional response, even on the military side. Also, its a good chance this is significantly developed as policy since it has been made public. The UK would be within its rights to straight out assassinate Vladimir Putin (and that is my preference for a solution, from any party) but diplomacy requires more responses before that to check aggression. War is almost inevitable with Putin in power, but maybe taking out the lights (and blowing up a few oil and gas pipelines -- see US actions against the Soviets and also Iraq) would inspire some homeland revolutionaries to start the revolution on their end. Kill Putin like Gaddafi, or kill him like Saddam, either way he will be dead soon enough and his hierarchy will crumble into infighting for a few decades.