The UK has arrested two Latvians at an RAF base. More

On Wednesday evening, the British military police found an abandoned car near the RAF Molesworth base in Cambridgeshire, and a few hours later they discovered a breach in the perimeter fence. Two Latvian nationals, aged 36 and 32, who are resident in the UK, were arrested within the perimeter. Their charges were subsequently upgraded under the National Security Act to include entering a restricted site with the intention of causing harm to the UK. Counter-terrorism police are seeking to establish the motive and, for the time being, have not identified any link to the case at RAF Fairford, where seven people were arrested last week as part of an investigation into the possible planning of an attack, likely orchestrated by Iran.

Molesworth, however, is no ordinary base: it houses a NATO intelligence centre and a major US military intelligence hub for Europe and Africa. Just one day earlier, on Tuesday, Teddy Young, a 24-year-old Royal Navy sailor specialising in military intelligence, was arrested by the British military police. Young is accused of possessing classified material and of preparing to pass it on to a foreign power, having translated a message into Russian and sought a portal through which to send information to Russia.

He is the first British military officer to be charged under the National Security Act 2023. The picture that emerges is one of a hybrid war waged by Russia and its partners, one that is increasingly less confined to traditional espionage, but instead consists of reconnaissance and sabotage, pressure on military infrastructure, recruitment and attempts to penetrate Western systems. But there is also another reason why such reports seem to be multiplying. The major European powers are beginning to call these activities by their proper name and to equip themselves with national security tools to counter them. And so the point is no longer merely to uncover Russian activity, but to prevent it from going unnoticed.