Kremlin File: Unmasking Russia's Sabotage Operations with Dr. Benjamin L. Schmitt
Dr. Benjamin Schmitt joins Mo and Olga to explore Russia's covert sabotage of Europe’s critical infrastructure. They delve into Russia's deliberate attacks on railways, pipelines, and cables. They examine Russia's recruitment of agents, tactical methods, and the political reasons hindering direct accusations. They discuss the need for stronger surveillance, transparent investigations, and international cooperation to prevent future attacks. Join them as they dissect hybrid threats and strategize for transatlantic security and resilience.
Executive producer: Oreste Camarra
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Show Notes
Benjamin Schmitt Bio
Benjamin L. Schmitt is a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, where he holds a joint academic appointment between the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. At Penn, Schmitt focuses on the project development and field deployment of the Simons Observatory, a new set of experimental cosmology telescopes and energy support infrastructure under construction at a high-altitude site in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. In his joint role at Penn, he also pursues research and teaching related to European energy security, transatlantic national security, export control policies, and modern sanctions regimes.
Previously, Schmitt was a research associate and project development scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where he supported the technical design, project management, and deployment of novel instrumentation and infrastructure for next-generation experimental cosmology telescopes at the South Pole. For this work, he traveled to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica in early 2020 and is a recipient of the U.S. Antarctica Service Medal. Schmitt remains an affiliate of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and is also an associate of the Harvard-Ukrainian Research Institute.
Schmitt is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is co-founder of the Duke Space Diplomacy Lab, where he is also a fellow of Duke’s Rethinking Diplomacy Program. Schmitt is also a senior fellow for Democratic Resilience at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), where he focuses on transatlantic energy and national security analysis, as well as emerging space security challenges to the transatlantic community.
Previously, Schmitt served as European energy security advisor at the U.S. Department of State, where he advanced diplomatic engagement vital to the energy and national security interests of the transatlantic community, with a focus on supporting the resilience of NATO’s eastern flank and Ukraine in the face of Russian malign energy activities.
Schmitt regularly provides expert commentary for print, television, and radio, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, NPR’s Marketplace, BBC World Service, Slate, Vox, The Sunday Telegraph, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, Bild Zeitung, Handelsblatt, and the Kyiv Post.
Wake Up NATO: It’s Sabotage
From onshore attacks against European rail, logistics, and energy facilities to disruption of subsea infrastructure, Putin’s sabotage must not go unchecked. Via CEPA