“A Russian submarine plus special forces undersea divers, they could create chaos in the world … by disrupting critical Internet infrastructure,” said Kenneth Geers, a former NSA official and cyber and national security expert at Atlantic Council."

…

"The New York Times reported in October 2015 that aggressive Russian naval operations near those cables triggered worries among some U.S. officials that Moscow could be plotting to attack them in the event of a conflict."

…

“All potential adversaries such as Russia and China understand that we are dependent on information enabled technologies and they see it as an asymmetric vulnerability of the United States,” said Frank Rose, a former State Department official and senior fellow for security and strategy at the Brookings Institution."

…

“It is much more likely that sabotage would be something that could potentially damage or exploit these cables, than espionage,” said Robert Anderson, a former national security executive at the FBI and now a security expert with the Chertoff Group."

…

“The arteries upon which the Internet and our modern world depends have been left highly vulnerable. Whether from terrorist activity or an increasingly bellicose Russian naval presence, the threat of these vulnerabilities being exploited is growing,” Rishi Sunak, a British member of Parliament, wrote in paper published last December."

…

"The Treasury sanctions announced Monday were issued under a law passed by Congress last year to punish Moscow for interfering in the 2016 presidential election and other malign activities. It's part of a growing effort by the Trump administration to call out and punish Russia for its behavior in cyberspace and elsewhere."

Source: thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/392577-spotlight-falls-on-russian-threat-to-undersea-cables

This appears to me to be the setting of the stage for a false flag. Atlantic Council is a Soros operation. Also notice one commentator is affiliated with the Chertoff Group.