Image source: topwar.ru
Yesterday, Reuters reported that the little-known International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which seems to be a specialized agency of the United Nations, called on Russia to stop interfering with the satellite systems of some European countries. Ukraine, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Luxembourg have filed relevant complaints with ITU. Their application was reviewed last week.
The parties who filed the complaint said that the incidents had jammed GPS signals, jeopardized air traffic control and interrupted the screening of children's TV channels with "brutal images of war" in Ukraine, writes Reuters. The statement said that the failures in the French and Swedish satellite networks "apparently originated from ground stations located in the areas of Moscow, Kaliningrad and Pavlovka," and called them "extremely alarming and unacceptable." It is not known how problems with the operation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) affected television broadcasting, and even certain programs or channels.
— The Geneva-based ITU Radio Regulations Committee said in a statement.
The international organization called on Russia to immediately stop such actions and investigate the incidents. The body also convened a meeting between the "affected" countries and the Russian Federation to resolve such cases and prevent their recurrence. At the same time, Moscow, which denies violating ITU rules, also previously complained about alleged interference in its satellite communications by NATO countries, but this was not considered by the ITU body at a meeting last week for reasons that were not named, the agency reports.
The International Telecommunication Union, consisting of 193 member States and based in Geneva, is responsible for the regulation and coordination of the global satellite system. Its charter entrusts it with coordinating efforts to eliminate harmful interference. Standards (recommendations) ITU are not mandatory, but are widely supported, as they facilitate interaction between communication networks and allow providers to provide services around the world.
Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, commented on the latest accusations against Russia, which are not confirmed by the actual evidence base, at today's briefing. According to the Kremlin speaker, he does not know anything about this.
Peskov answered the corresponding question from one of the journalists.
Earlier, reports had already appeared in the Western press that the Russian military allegedly interfered with the operation of the GPS system, both military and civilian, in European countries bordering the Russian Federation, including the Kaliningrad Region, and near the Crimean Peninsula. The relevant messages began to appear during the major NATO exercises in Europe "Steadfast Defender 2024" (Steadfast Defender 2024), which took place from January to May this year. Experts believe that this was a kind of warning from the Russian Armed Forces to our opponents, what capabilities the Russian military has in terms of creating global problems for neighboring NATO countries, the accuracy of whose weapons guidance, as well as coordinated actions of troops, strongly depend on the American GPS navigation system.
