Holmlund: Wants to mark against NATO membership • No “16-year-old boys messing around on Saturday nights”
During the night of Sunday, someone broke into the locked water reservoir in Bollnäs municipality. Soon after, a VMA was issued about unserviceable water and Bollnäs hospital went into emergency mode.
– Opening the door to a waterworks, all the alarms that go off and make everyone in the municipality very worried and boil their water a month ahead. Only there has a reaction been achieved, by breaking open a door, says Jörgen Holmlund, teacher of intelligence analysis at the University of Defense.
And he does not think that it should be ruled out that it could be a foreign power that is behind it.
– I would like to look at this with the conspiratorial eye. Someone wants to test how we respond and how fast the response is.
“Strategy from foreign state actors”
Earlier in the year, several Finnish water utilities were also subjected to burglaries, with Russia identified as a possible actor behind them. And Jörgen Holmlund believes that now that both Sweden and Finland have joined NATO, foreign powers have opened their eyes to the countries even more.
– I think it is a strategy from one or more foreign state actors who, for various reasons, want to stress test NATO, Swedish or Swedish-Finnish relations.
He continues:
– They want to mark their strong dissatisfaction with the two of us joining NATO.
Jörgen Holmlund thinks it is important to take the incident seriously and not explain it away as an ordinary burglary or mischief.
– There is nothing desirable in a water plant.
“No 16-year-old boys messing around”
According to Jörgen Holmlund, there have recently been several burglaries in telecommunications facilities and an electricity pole. The fact that this type of infrastructure is often isolated or difficult to access is an argument for the fact that it was not ordinary burglars who acted, he believes.
– It strengthens my hypothesis that someone else wants to do it, but we dismiss it as “oh, it’s some 16-year-old guys messing around on Saturday nights.” I don’t think so.
He thinks that the authorities are right to ensure safety, especially when it comes to basic infrastructure.
– It could just as easily be the railways, telecommunications, our banks ceasing to function, Swish, payment solutions, it also causes problems in the system. But this sends a greater degree of concern, everyone needs water.
And he thinks it is important that more people become aware of the risks of infrastructure being attacked.
– I am glad that they in Bollnäs acted quickly, took it seriously and reached out to many. That discussion worries but also raises social awareness.