Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, issued a stark warning in June.
The undersea cables that enable global communications had become a legitimate target for Russia, he said.
Medvedev's warning came after Nord Stream 2, a pipeline that transfers gas from Russia to Germany, was blown up. Russian officials believed the West had been involved in the attack. (Recent reports suggest Ukraine was actually behind the attack.)
"If we proceed from the proven complicity of Western countries in blowing up the Nord Streams, then we have no constraints - even moral - left to prevent us from destroying the ocean floor cable communications of our enemies," Medvedev posted on Telegram.
Medvedev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has a long history of making incendiary claims.
But some analysts say this wasn't just another idle threat.
The vast network of undersea fiber-optic cables that transfer data between continents is indeed vulnerable to hostile powers, including Russia, the Center for Strategic and International Studies warned in a report this month.
In May, NATO's intelligence chief David Cattler warned that Russia may be planning to target the cables in retribution for the West's support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
It's a scenario that has NATO's planners increasingly worried.
If the cables are seriously damaged or disabled, swaths of the internet services we take for granted and that our economies rely on, including calls, financial transactions, and streaming, would be wiped out.
Carl-Oskar Bohlin, Sweden's minister for civil defense, said damage to a telecommunications cable running under the Baltic Sea in 2023 was the result of "external force or tampering," though he did not provide details.
And in June, NATO stepped up aircraft patrols off the coast of Ireland amid concerns about Russian submarine activity, The Sunday Times reported.
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