22ND Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum – Cyber, 5G And Emerging Tech Threats

John Strand described the problem of Europe’s reliance on Russian gas and the risk of a forthcoming cold winter. Just as At European countries are dependent on Russian gas, they have a similar dependence on Chinese telecommunication equipment from companies like Huawei and ZTE. This could become a huge problem if China invades Taiwan. He described many mobile operators which have ripped and replaced their Huawei networks with equipment from non-Chinese providers. There are still some few European countries where most or all of the telecom equipment comes from

Chinese companies. He expressed admiration for the American and European companies that have pulled out of Russia. Unfortunately, there are still companies like the French Satellite operator Eutelsat which still works in Russia. Eutelsat removed programs from democratic countries but still distributes Russian news channels to more than 15 million households in Russia. Strand said Eutelsat is an important part of Putin’s Apparatus Of War Propaganda. He called for the end to Putin´s propaganda and the proliferation of Chinese equipment from Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and so on. These Chinese companies are still doing business in Russia, filling the gap from the companies from democratic companies which have pulled out.