On stage

SB

Stephanie Baker

Moderator · Bloomberg

PJ

Paul Joyal

Russian-intelligence expert

SR

Sten Reimann

Infinitum

NB

Neil Barnett

Istok Associates

★

A serving Ukrainian security-service officer

name withheld for security

The panel examined Russia's hybrid war on Europe — sabotage, arson, assassination plots and proxy networks such as the Marsalek/Bulgarian ring — and Russia's growing use of cryptocurrency for sanctions evasion and political money laundering. Speakers proposed tightening electoral-donation law to shrink the "attack surface," deeper intelligence-sharing and sanctions on facilitators, and merging intelligence, cyber and special-forces capabilities. Ukrainian speakers described asymmetric operations (Spiderweb, Kursk) and the drive to classify coordinated cyberattacks as war crimes.

The substance

Key takeaways

1

Russia-intelligence expert Paul Joyal argued Russia "does not have a military culture — it has an intelligence culture" built on subversion, and detailed the outsourced Jan Marsalek/Wirecard network (which funded the Bulgarian ring in London and penetrated Austrian intelligence), calling for collective sanctions on anyone facilitating Russian intelligence when arrest isn't possible.

2

Neil Barnett (Istok Associates) gave the panel's most concrete policy proposal: reduce the "attack surface" for Russian political money-laundering — now overwhelmingly done via crypto — through three uncontroversial electoral-law reforms: only individuals may donate, donors must be voters, and donors must be taxpayers, disqualifying opaque money routed from Dubai or Hong Kong.

3

A serving SBU deputy commander explained the logic behind Operation Spiderweb — maximum strategic effect from minimal resources — reporting it took roughly 37% of Russia's strategic air fleet out of action and cut bombing runs by about half, and revealed the operation slipped a month because it had to be timed around Russian holiday celebrations when guards were "exhausted after rest and drinking."

4

A representative of Ukraine's Economic Security Council argued cyberattacks coordinated with missile strikes (energy infrastructure; the Kyivstar telecom attack that cut air-raid alerts and emergency calls) should be prosecuted as war crimes — noting international humanitarian law is "usually late by one war" and that the 1974 UN definition of aggression predates cyber entirely.

5

Sten Reimann (Infinitum) stressed that at least 75% of any targeting is intelligence and that the West under-supplies Ukraine here — recalling the visible damage when US intelligence sharing was switched on and off — and argued the answer is "sanitising" intelligence to protect sources while still enabling strikes; multiple panellists and audience members converged on the same theme, that unchecked Western components keep turning up inside recovered Russian weapons and secondary sanctions are the missing enforcement tool.

In their words

Key quotes

“

Russia does not have a military culture. What it does have is an intelligence culture. And the heart and soul of Russian intelligence is subversion.

Paul Joyal

“

What we have to do, in IT terms, is reduce the attack surface... through the rather mundane means of updating our electoral legislation.

Neil Barnett

← PreviousThe Strategic Architecture of Victory Next →The Unmanned Battlefield

← All Defence Innovation Forum sessions

London proved it. Dallas is next.

The 3rd Ukraine Freedom Summit comes to Dallas, 16–19 March 2027. Same mission, bigger stage.

Dallas 2027 Support the Summit