Russia has been plotting to place incendiary devices on cargo planes in Europe and even performed a test run this summer, setting off fires at shipping hubs in Britain and Germany, according to four Western officials briefed on intelligence about the operation.

据四名了解行动情报的西方官员透露，俄罗斯一直密谋在欧洲的货运飞机上放置纵火装置，今年夏天甚至做了一次试运行，在英国和德国的航运枢纽引发了火灾。

The effort represents a potentially significant escalation of the Kremlin’s sabotage operations against Western adversaries.

此举表明，克里姆林宫针对西方对手的破坏行动可能大幅升级。

The goal of the plot, orchestrated by Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, is not entirely clear, according to two of the officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters. It could have been what ultimately occurred: to set fires with incendiary devices placed at logistics hubs belonging to the package shipping company DHL, perhaps meant to instill fear or deliver a warning.

其中两名官员表示，这起由俄罗斯军事情报机构格鲁乌精心策划的阴谋的目的并不完全清楚。由于涉及敏感情报问题，两名官员都要求匿名。也许就是为了实现已经发生的情况——用放置在快递公司DHL的物流中心的纵火装置制造火灾，也许是为了引发恐惧或发出警告。

But Western intelligence agencies are also investigating whether Moscow intended something more ambitious, and menacing, such as destroying planes on American runways, setting off bombs at U.S. warehouses or even blowing up aircraft midair. Officials said that both the U.S. and its European allies were potential targets of the Russian plot.

但西方情报机构也在调查莫斯科是否有更具野心和威胁性的意图，比如摧毁美国跑道上的飞机、在美国仓库引爆炸弹，甚至在空中炸毁飞机。官员们说，美国及其欧洲盟国都是俄罗斯阴谋的潜在目标。

The operation is an effort by Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, to inflict damage on the West for its support of Ukraine’s military, officials said. The Kremlin’s goal appears to be to shake Western backing for Ukraine or, failing that, exact a price for it.

官员们表示，此次行动是俄罗斯总统普京为报复西方对乌克兰的军事支持而采取的。克里姆林宫的目标似乎是动摇西方对乌克兰的支持，就算做不到，至少也要让对方付出代价。

In the first two years of the war with Ukraine, the Kremlin largely avoided directly provoking Kyiv’s allies, particularly those belonging to NATO, officials said, fearful of a dangerous escalation. Today, any such reticence appears to have dissolved, they said.

他们称，在与乌克兰开战的前两年，克里姆林宫担心局势危险地升级，基本上避免直接激怒基辅的盟友，尤其是那些北约成员国。这些官员说，如今这种保留已经不复存在。

“Hostile activity carried out on behalf of the Russian Federation is increasingly taking the form of terrorist activities,” Poland’s domestic intelligence service said in a communiqué published last month.

“以俄罗斯联邦名义开展的敌对活动正越来越多地以恐怖主义的形式出现，”波兰国内情报机构上月发表的一份公报称。

The Kremlin has denied that its agents engage in sabotage.

克里姆林宫否认其特工参与了破坏活动。

The incendiary devices were planted at DHL shipping hubs in Leipzig, Germany, and Birmingham, England, the Western officials said. The fires caused minimal damage and no injuries, they said, but the blazes raised the frightening specter of bombs potentially being loaded on aircraft.

西方官员称，这些纵火装置被安置在德国莱比锡和英国伯明翰的DHL货运中心。他们说，火灾造成的损失很小，没有人受伤，但起火令人们开始担心会有炸弹被安置在飞机上。

The Wall Street Journal described details of the plot on Monday.

《华尔街日报》周一描述了这起阴谋的细节。

In a statement, DHL, whose global headquarters are in Germany, confirmed “two recent incidents involving shipments in our network.”

总部位于德国的DHL在声明中证实，“最近有两起事件涉及我们网络中的货物。”

“We are fully cooperating with the relevant authorities to protect our people, our network and our customers’ shipments,” the statement said.

声明称：“我们正全力配合有关部门，保护我们的员工、我们的网络和客户的货物。”

Last month, the Polish authorities announced the arrests of four suspects involved in planting the incendiary devices. The country’s National Prosecutor’s Office said the plot had been part of a test run with the ultimate goal of putting explosive devices on planes bound for the United States and Canada, though the Western officials could not confirm this was the intent.

上个月，波兰当局宣布逮捕了四名参与安置纵火装置的嫌疑人。该国国家检察官办公室表示，这起阴谋是一次试验的一部分，其最终目标是在飞往美国和加拿大的飞机上放置爆炸装置，尽管西方官员无法证实这是他们的意图。

It is possible that Russia wanted the option of eventually blowing up cargo planes flying to or over America. But the officials briefed on the intelligence said that would be a stark change from Russia’s current strategy of “horizontal escalation,” in which Moscow seeks to carefully manage its responses to allied support to Ukraine. Blowing up a plane over the United States, which would revive memories of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, would provoke a strong retaliation from Washington, something Moscow has wanted to avoid.

俄罗斯有可能希望最终炸毁飞往美国或飞越美国的货机。但听取了情报简报的官员表示，这与俄罗斯目前的“横向升级”战略截然不同，在该战略中，莫斯科试图谨慎管理其对盟国支持乌克兰的反应。在美国上空炸毁一架飞机会唤起人们对2001年9月11日袭击事件的记忆，这会引发华盛顿的强烈报复，莫斯科一直希望避免这种情况。

But Western intelligence agencies have not completely ruled out the possibility that Moscow wants at least the option of carrying out such a provocative attack; that would be especially true if the United States enables Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia or provides Kyiv with more powerful weaponry, something the Biden administration has so far resisted.

但西方情报机构并没有完全排除这样一种可能性，即莫斯科希望至少有进行这种挑衅性袭击的选择；如果美国让乌克兰能够更深入地打击俄罗斯，或者向基辅提供更强大的武器，那就更是如此。拜登政府迄今一直抵制这种做法。

Over the last several months the Transportation Security Administration has added “security measures for U.S. aircraft operators and foreign air carriers regarding certain cargo shipments bound for the United States,” a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement to the Times.

美国运输安全管理局的一位发言人在给《纽约时报》的一份声明中说，过去几个月里，该机构增加了“针对美国飞机运营商和外国航空公司的某些运往美国的货物的安全措施”。

A U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at this time there was “no current active threat targeting U.S.-bound flights.”

一位不愿透露姓名的美国政府官员表示，目前“没有针对美国航班的有效威胁”。

The plot is part of a broader Russian campaign of sabotage in Europe, using vandalism, arson and physical attacks on individuals, officials say.

官员们说，这起阴谋是俄罗斯在欧洲进行的更广泛破坏活动的一部分，其手段包括破坏、纵火和人身攻击。

In February, two assassins suspected of ties to the Russian intelligence services killed a Russian defector in southern Spain. Last spring, U.S. intelligence agencies uncovered a Russian plot to kill the chief executive of a German arms manufacturer. And in Estonia, several people are on trial on charges of committing acts of vandalism at the behest of Russian intelligence operatives, including breaking the car windows of the country’s interior minister.

今年2月，两名疑与俄罗斯情报机构有关联的刺客在西班牙南部杀死了一名俄罗斯叛逃者。去年春天，美国情报机构发现了俄罗斯企图刺杀一家德国武器制造商首席执行官的阴谋。在爱沙尼亚，一些人正在受审，他们被控在俄罗斯情报人员的授意下实施破坏行为，包括打破该国内政部长的车窗。

“The scale of Russia’s attempts to sow discord across Europe and the use of untrained criminals mean that it is very probable that at some point there may be an attack where someone is killed or where a civilian is seriously harmed,” a spokesperson for Estonia’s internal security service said in a statement recently sent to The New York Times.

爱沙尼亚国内安全部门的一名发言人在最近发给《纽约时报》的一份声明中说，“俄罗斯企图在欧洲挑拨不和的规模，以及使用未经训练的犯罪分子，意味着很有可能在某个时候发生袭击，导致人员死亡或平民受到严重伤害。”

Officials cautioned that it can be difficult to definitively attribute apparent acts of sabotage to Russia’s intelligence services, in particular when they use local criminal proxies who may not even know whom they’re working for. There have also been cases in which Russian agents, in secret communications with their bosses, have taken credit for events they had nothing to do with, officials said.

官员们警告称，很难将这些明显的破坏行为明确地归咎于俄罗斯情报机构，尤其是他们使用当地的犯罪代理，这些代理甚至可能不知道自己在为谁工作。官员们表示，还有一些案例显示，俄罗斯特工在与上司的秘密通信中，把看似与自己无关的事件算在自己头上。

The sabotage campaign is being waged almost exclusively by the GRU, officials said. It is an agency that European security officials have long been familiar with. In 2018, operatives from the agency used a highly potent nerve agent in the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal, a GRU defector who was living in Britain.

官员们说，破坏活动几乎完全是由格鲁乌发起的。长期以来，欧洲安全官员一直对该机构很熟悉。2018年，该机构的特工在试图暗杀居住在英国的格鲁乌叛逃者谢尔盖·斯克里帕尔时，使用了一种强效神经毒剂。

The agency was behind a similar assassination attempt against a Bulgarian arms manufacturer, as well as explosions at weapons plants in the Czech Republic and a thwarted coup in Montenegro, according to Western security officials.

据西方安全官员称，该机构策划了针对保加利亚一家武器制造商的类似暗杀行动，还策划了捷克共和国武器工厂的爆炸事件，以及黑山未遂的政变。

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the GRU’s activities in Europe abated somewhat as European countries expelled operatives and limited travel for Russians. But in the past year, the agency has figured out ways to restore its operations.

在俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰之后，随着欧洲国家驱逐特工并限制俄罗斯人的旅行，格鲁乌在欧洲的活动有所减弱。但在过去一年里，该机构已经找到了恢复运转的方法。

“The GRU in particular is on a sustained mission to generate mayhem on British and European streets,” Ken McCallum, the director general of Britain’s Mi5, the country’s domestic intelligence service, warned in rare public remarks last month. “We’ve seen arson, sabotage and more. Dangerous actions conducted with increasing recklessness.”

“尤其是格鲁乌，它的长期任务是在英国和欧洲的街头上造混乱，”英国国内情报机构军情五处局长肯·麦卡勒姆上个月罕见地在公开讲话中警告说。“我们看到了纵火、破坏等等。危险行为越来越肆无忌惮。”

Even so, officials say, it is harder for Russian intelligence services to operate on European territory than it once was. Starting in 2018 and continuing through the start of the war in Ukraine, European countries have expelled hundreds of Russian intelligence officers. A number of deep-cover Russian operatives, called “illegals,” have also been identified and arrested.

尽管如此，官员们表示，俄罗斯情报机构在欧洲领土上开展活动比以前更难了。从2018年起，一直持续到乌克兰战争开始，欧洲国家驱逐了数百名俄罗斯情报官员。一些被称为“非法分子”的俄罗斯卧底特工也已被确认并逮捕。

This has left the intelligence services, particularly the GRU, increasingly reliant on criminal proxies, often hired over the internet, to carry out acts of sabotage, officials say.

官员们表示，这使得情报部门，尤其是格鲁乌，越来越依赖犯罪代理（通常是通过互联网雇佣）来实施破坏行动。

These proxies are relatively inexpensive to use and give Russian intelligence services a degree of deniability. But they are also unreliable and prone to poor discipline that can lead to botched operations.

使用这些代理的成本相对较低，并给了俄罗斯情报机构一定程度的隐蔽性。但同时他们也不可靠，而且容易缺乏纪律，导致操作失误。

“They can’t use their own people; they’re having to do with criminal elements,” Richard Moore, the head of Mi6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service, said in public remarks in September. “Criminals do stuff for cash. They are not reliable; they are not particularly professional, and, therefore, usually we are able to roll them up pretty effectively. It’s not amateurish; it’s just a little more reckless.”

“他们不能用自己的人；他们不得不与犯罪分子合作，”英国对外情报机构军情六处负责人理查德·摩尔去年9月在公开讲话中表示。“罪犯为了钱做事。他们不可靠；他们不是特别专业，因此，通常我们能够很有效地把他们控制起来。倒不是说他们业余；只是有点鲁莽。”

“I think the Russian intelligence services have gone a bit feral,” he added.

“我认为俄罗斯情报机构已经有点疯狂了，”他还说。