Russia Has Learned That Chaos Is Cheaper Than War – INTERVIEW

Elisabeth Braw on grey-zone sabotage, the undersea threat and how Europe can defend itself

9 October 2026

Lukas Bryant

Junior Fellow

Is Russia’s undersea war a sign of the Kremlin preparing for something bigger? Read on what Europe should expect and what Brussels can do to prevent the crisis from cascading.

Elisabeth Braw, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, published her new book, The Undersea War, on 8 October. Visegrad Insight spoke with her about Russian hybrid threats, the vulnerability of cables and pipelines on the seabed and Europe’s defence relationship with the United States.

This conversation happened on the sidelines of the Europe Future Forum, organised by Visegrad Insight and Res Publica Foundation. Braw has engaged actively with Visegrad Insight, including during the Resilient Futures Fellowship, where she led the module on critical infrastructure resilience against grey-zone threats.

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Lukas Bryant

Junior Fellow

Lukas Bryant is a Junior Fellow at Visegrad Insight. He is a student at Stanford University. Bilingual in English and Czech, Lukas studies political science and international relations, with his academic interests focused on how European institutions operate, craft policy in response to external threats and address the rise of insurgent populist movements

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