Hybrid warfare

The Minister of Defense Todor Tagarev participated in the conference "Countering hybrid threats from unconventional weapons in the Black Sea region", which was held today, November 28, in Sofia. The forum is organized by the Center for the Study of Democracy and the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation at the US State Department.

As early as the Russian military campaign in Georgia in 2008, it was clear to anyone paying attention that cyberattacks had become a critical element of conventional warfare strategy. Instead, the Kremlin's brazenness in using military force to show that Georgia would be broken up before joining NATO shocked us, while the EU's attempts at instant war diplomacy distracted us.

Media experts have hit back at claims made by top Croatian politicians, including the PM, that the media are engaging in a form of "hybrid warfare" against them and Croatia.

Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev is set to attend a meeting of defense ministers in Brussels and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cybersecurity.

The document will seal the country's commitment to building up defense capacities of national networks and critical infrastructure.

Bulgarian Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev has said authorities are planning to develop a national strategy to counter acts of hybrid warfare.

Nenchev has noted the Bulgarian state institutions are taking increasingly seriously cyber crimes and will include tough measures against them in their strategy.

Bulgarian Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev called for urgently devising a concept on counteracting hybrid threats.

Nenchev announced this during the opening of the new academic year at the Georgi Sava Rakovski Military Academy in Sofia on Tuesday.

The minister revealed that he had already raised the issue at the level of NATO defence ministers, Darik radio reports.

Since the end of the Cold War, the nature of international conflicts has changed considerably. While there has been a steady decline in interstate warfare, intrastate conflicts have increased in number and ferocity. In some cases, these intrastate conflicts have overstepped the state boundary and became threats to their neighbors as well as the international system.

Information campaigns and cyber attacks carried out on the sidelines of the conflict in Ukraine are an example of a "new type of fighting a war", Bulgaria's Defense Ministry points out in a document.

NATO allies are scrambling to protect vulnerable Baltic partners from the threat of hybrid warfare, a Russian tactic that officials and experts say is based on deception rather than formal declaration of war.
      

NATO and Russia trade "hybrid warfare" accusations

BRUSSELS -- NATO has an extensive history of "hybrid operations," Russian Permanent Representative to NATO Aleksandr Grushko has said.

The Russian official cited the former Yugoslavia as an example.

"Each country or organization can learn from the experience of the Alliance," said Grushko.