(...) in my view, the most harmful element is the entire ecosystem of various bloggers, activists, and other oddities that, fed by the Kremlin, has proliferated so much over the last 10–15 years that, if I may use a metaphor, they are crawling out of every crevice like cockroaches. For example, a few days ago I read an investigative piece about a Hungary-based group formally established to defend the rights of Hungarians in Romania, which also manages to visit Riga to coordinate its activities with "defenders of Russian-speaking rights in Latvia". A peculiar feature of this group is that those living in other "bubbles" are not even aware of its existence, but that does not in any way diminish the effectiveness of such agents of influence within their own "bubbles". One does not need special expertise or analysis to understand that if this ecosystem was quite successful at maintaining a proper "temperature" in its "bubbles" before the invasion of Ukraine, it is now operating and will continue to operate with increased capacity. And this means radicalised fellow citizens in the symbolic West and – especially – in Eastern Europe. In this regard, the greatest concerns are regarding paramilitary groups in Poland – a country whose history of relations with Ukraine has a series of significant rough patches – and in Slovakia, which is traditionally very friendly towards Russia. I would not be surprised by disgusting provocations aimed at refugees from Ukraine in these countries (as well as in Hungary), and even acts of sabotage (let us recall the 2018 act of sabotage carried out by an exotic Polish and Russian company against the Hungarian Cultural Association headquarters in Uzhhorod).

To summarise: concerns about the escalation of the hybrid war carried out by Russia are well-founded, but there is no need to pay exaggerated attention to secondary issues.