London's Michelin-starred restaurant Hide is known for its extravagant dining experience, extensive wine list and signature twisting oak staircase.
It is a place where diners indulge in "posh" 36-pound ($75) black truffle scrambled eggs in the morning, with views of Green Park in the exclusive Mayfair district.
At night, champagne carts rattle by as waiters pass around dishes served on "a nest of hay".
But over the past year, the restaurant has drawn attention for very different reasons.
Investigators say it was the target of a "Russian-ordered" plot to kidnap its owner — a high-profile critic of President Vladimir Putin — and to set the three-level building on fire.
A group of young British men were arrested before the plan went ahead.
They were part of the same gang that was found guilty this week of carrying out an arson attack on a Ukraine-linked warehouse in east London, causing about 1 million pounds of damage.
Prosecutors said the March 2024 attack was planned by agents of the Wagner mercenary group — an organisation whose operations were taken over by the Russian Defence Ministry in 2023.
Acting through Wagner, Russian military intelligence was likely behind the plot, according to Kevin Riehle, a lecturer in Intelligence and National Security at London's Brunel University.
The 21-year-old ringleader Dylan Earl also pleaded guilty to planning the Hide restaurant plot.
Authorities suspected the incidents were part of a growing campaign of sabotage across Europe, as Russia escalated its so-called "shadow war" against the West.
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the London police's Counter Terrorism Command, said they were a "clear example of an organisation linked to the Russian state using 'proxies'".
The Kremlin has not commented on the British case, but has previously rejected "any allegations" it is running a sabotage campaign.
Sabotage skyrockets
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Western officials have accused Moscow of ramping up its sabotage operations.
The Associated Press has documented 70 incidents linked to Russia over the course of the Ukraine conflict.
There were 34 suspected Russian hybrid attacks in Europe last year, nearly triple the amount in 2023, according to a recent study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Hybrid attacks are a type of "irregular warfare", generally involving non-military tactics such as propaganda, deception and sabotage intended to destabilise adversaries.
[map]Across Europe, there have been reports of attacks on rail networks, undersea cables, critical infrastructure, civil aviation GPS systems, and assassination attempts.
Hundreds of car exhaust pipes have been stuffed with expanding foam in Germany, and parcels have exploded across Europe ahead of being packed on cargo flights.
Russia has consistently denied its involvement and it did not respond to the ABC's requests for comment.
Sascha Dov Bachmann, a professor of law and security at the University of Canberra, said these were classic Russian "cloak and dagger" clandestine operations.
"It's sabotage, it's cyber attacks, it's targeted assassination and, of course, espionage … and then comes this whole spectrum of political warfare and influence operations," he told the ABC.
"They are the sorts of operations you would normally associate with James Bond movies."
The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has repeatedly warned there is "a shadow war going on against our societies".
With incidents continuing to mount, she recently declared Europe was "under attack".
Over the past fortnight, new sabotage cases were opened in Germany and the Netherlands.
Dutch authorities are investigating possible sabotage of the rail system.
A power outage left the country's main airport with limited train services as a two-day summit of NATO leaders was opening.
There was a similar incident ahead of the Paris Olympics last July, with France's high-speed rail network targeted by arsonists ahead of the opening ceremony.
The alleged acts of sabotage were mostly aimed at undermining European support for Ukraine, military officers and experts have said.
Professor Bachmann said the tactics were intended to undermine trust in governments.
"It is meant to make people feel like they are not being protected," he said.
"It is seen as something which is often not considered war, but just short of war."
[graph]London attackers lured online
Western intelligence agencies say this operation is different.
The attacks have been more reckless and, in an "eye-catching shift", Russia has been turning to "proxies for their dirty work", the head of Britain's MI5 security agency, Ken McCallum, said.
Often they are young men and teenagers who are recruited through Telegram, the dark web, or chat functions in popular online games, according to Center for Strategic and International Studies analysis.
Last month, Reuters reported that since February 2022, dozens of teenagers in Ukraine and across Europe had been arrested in Russia-linked cases of sabotage and spying.
Documents shared during the London warehouse trial offered a glimpse into how young men are recruited.
Among those were transcripts of messages between a man prosecutors said was a Russian intelligence operative and his recruit, Earl, who was active on Telegram channels associated with the Wagner group.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and others reported last year the account had been advertised on Grey Zone, a channel affiliated with Wagner.
The recruiter and Earl communicated predominantly in Russian, with Earl using Google to translate, according to screenshots on his phone.
Their messages ranged from the deadly serious to the almost comical.
The recruiter told Earl he was "wise and clever despite being young" and suggested he watch the television show The Americans, which is about Soviet KGB intelligence officers undercover in the US.
"It will be your manual," the recruiter wrote.
Shortly after the fire in London, Earl and his co-conspirators discussed what they would do next, according to messages shared with the court.
Detectives found Earl was also raising the possibility of kidnapping Yevgeny Chichvarkin, a Russian tycoon who delivered supplies to Ukraine, and "exiling him back to Russia to face prison".
They talked about targeting his London businesses — Hedonism Wines and restaurant Hide — which Earl said would be turned to "ashes".
'Pawns' in psychological warfare
Jon Richardson, a visiting fellow at the ANU Centre for European Studies, said the use of young foot soldiers would allow Russia to distance itself from attacks.
"This recruitment has stepped up … and these activities are carried out less blatantly with Russian fingerprints on them," he said.
Often the damage caused by amateur saboteurs was minimal.
But their role, especially Ukrainian refugees across Europe, was to be "pawns" in wider psychological warfare, Professor Bachmann said.
"The approach to use those young people wasn't necessarily to cause significant damage with the attacks," he said.
"Having young Ukrainians being arrested under espionage, or otherwise, is enough."
It all helped build distrust among society of governments' support for Ukraine, he added.
"Immediately there's this sort of doubt and extra suspicion against Ukrainian refugees," he said.
Lithuanian prosecutors said a Ukrainian teenager was part of a plan to plant a bomb in an IKEA store just outside the capital of Vilnius last year.
It sparked a massive fire in the early hours of the morning. No-one was injured.
West running out of options
European allies have intensified intelligence sharing to counter the growing hybrid-warfare threat.
And extensive economic and diplomatic sanctions against Moscow have already been imposed.
In May, Poland also ordered that another Russian consulate in the country close due to suspected sabotage.
Mr Richardson from the ANU, who is a former Australian diplomat who covered Eastern Europe from Moscow, said the West was running out of options.
"The Europeans have talked about stepping up cooperation and joint measures through intelligence agencies, and strengthening protection of infrastructure," he said.
"But there hasn't been a lot done, and it's not necessarily deterring them a lot."
Although there was limited capacity to retaliate, he said a more strenuous response by Western governments was needed.
NATO leaders recently reached a decision to invest 5 per cent of GDP in defence, and affirmed continued support for Ukraine.
Secretary-general Mark Rutte said the countries would be "ready, willing and able to defend every inch of allied territory … whether from Russia or terrorism, cyber attacks, sabotage or strategic competition".
There are concerns across Europe that the hybrid assaults will escalate further as countries boost support for Ukraine.
And even if the conflict in Ukraine ends, Russia's shadow war against the West could continue.
Peter Reesink, the director of the Dutch military intelligence agency, said Russia was increasingly prepared to take risks.
"We see the Russian threat against Europe is increasing, including after a possible end to the war against Ukraine," he said at a security briefing in April.
"The conflict — in the grey zone between war and peace — has become a reality."
ABC/wires
