Since joining NATO, Sweden has been complaining about suspicious satellite interference orchestrated from Russia. Other European countries, including France, have noted the same phenomenon. The UN condemns these operations and calls on Russia to cease its interference “immediately”.
Is Russia intentionally disrupting GPS and television signals in several European countries, including Ukraine, Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg? The International Telecommunications Union, the UN’s telecommunications agency, believes so. In a document published on July 1, it notes: “extremely worrying and unacceptable practices”which she associates with Russia.
According to the ITU, Russia is deliberately interfering with Ukrainian media frequencies, including by showing images of the war on children’s channels. A few days ago, Sweden, which is mentioned five times in the report, complained about interference since joining NATO.
Russia must stop playing with satellites
Is Russia behind these mysterious interferences? The UN agency has no doubt about it: “Two different satellite operators geolocated the source of the interference and came to similar conclusions, namely that the harmful interference came from ground stations located in the areas of Moscow, Kaliningrad and Pavlovka.”the ITU said in its report.
“The Council expressed its grave concern regarding the use of signals to intentionally cause harmful interference to the radiocommunication services of another administration and condemned such actions in the strongest terms.” adds the United Nations agency. In France, Eutelstat satellites have been “seriously affected” by these interferences, which prevent them from broadcasting properly. Disney programs are said to have been replaced by war videos. Russia denies being behind this type of manipulation.
The UN “calls upon the administration of the Russian Federation to immediately cease any deliberate actions aimed at causing harmful interference to the frequency assignments of other administrations”the document says.
To advance its investigation, the ITU is asking Russia to provide it with information on ground stations deployed near the results of its geolocations and to cease all disruption operations.
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