Netherlands railway exposed to sabotage - warns of Russian hybrid warfare

In the middle of the morning rush, everything suddenly stood still. Large parts of the Netherlands' rail system were knocked out on Tuesday last week. The reason was that objects were – deliberately – placed on the rails in a number of places.

Delays, not derailments, were the result.

"Potentially life-threatening," the country's prime minister called the incident.

The whole thing is being investigated as sabotage. The authorities have not identified anyone responsible. But it is possible to have your suspicions.

In August, a drone loaded with explosives was discovered at Leipzig airport.

There was no explosion, but it could have ended really badly.

The other week, the German authorities pointed out the culprit: Russia was responsible.

That time, they caught suspected perpetrators and managed to gather evidence. You don't always succeed in that.

What is clear is that the Kremlin has greatly scaled up its hybrid warfare over the past year.

Right now, the warnings are being lined up from the EU's heaviest leaders: Poland's Donald Tusk, France's Emmanuel Macron, Germany's Friedrich Merz have all stated that Russia is escalating.

Why is Vladimir Putin behaving like this?

Things are not going well for him in Ukraine, how smart is it to draw more people into the conflict?

If the Americans don't come, and others suddenly show up too, then we're all alone with Moscow

Yes, one of the reasons why things are not going well is that Europe has stood firmly behind Kiev. Putin realizes that he can only win if the support ends. He sees populists on the rise and war weariness in the EU spared from the war. If war creeps closer, do we sway?

And then there's the factor of Donald Trump - the man who these days hosts China's president, and Putin's patron, Xi Jinping, and makes the Taiwanese worry that they are about to be turned into a pawn in a game, and could soon be handed over to Beijing.

The American president seems to be in a good mood after his "fantastic" deal with Denmark which means he won't get Greenland, but the bases he's been able to get all along without any threats. But for how long?

Does anyone trust him to stand by his country's security guarantees to its allies?

One for all, all for one is NATO's founding principle.

The question is how brave Italians, Spaniards and – yes – Swedes are if Estonia is attacked and we realize that the US does not have our back.

Putin's goal with an attack on a NATO country would not be to take the entire continent in one fell swoop. Russia can't do that. But he wants to make the alliance look like a house of cards, which can blow over.

If the Americans don't come to the rescue, and others suddenly scurry too, then we're all alone with Moscow.

This is what is at stake, as Putin escalates.

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