[colejhudson]

No, Russia is the prime (if not only) candidate.

Why? They've been developing a system of "single-use agents" to overwhelm European governments and keep them on their back foot.

This is likely a test run.

A lovely article on this was recently published in The New Yorker that you may enjoy: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/02/09/to-build-a-fir....

[sozforex]

Israel is another candidate, given that Israel has beef with Spain for Spanish government not supporting/approving the genocide in Gaza.

[direwolf20]

I don't believe that without evidence. Europe tacitly supports Israel even while some parts of it claim not to, and Spain is internationally irrelevant.

[ted_bunny]

Exactly why they are singled out for chilling effect. They cannot retaliate substantially.

Evidence is not easy to find on these topics. It's espionage for christ's sake. You need to analyze material incentives and be familiar with the methods used. You cannot expect the media to hand you the answers, because that is not the purpose of the media especially on topics like this.

[LorenPechtel]

This makes no sense.

Israel responds to words with words. They respond to force with force. And they are busy enough dealing with the trouble that Iran keeps stirring up, they're not going to do anything to Spain. (Not to say that it would be out of the question for them to go after terrorists who were in Spain, but it would be very focused. Look at what happened after Munich--multiple European countries were incredibly inept about extraditing the attackers so Israel responded with assassination teams. Not strikes on anything they didn't believe had hurt them.)

(And there never was a genocide, but this isn't the thread for it.)

[ted_bunny]

Journalists and Doctors without Borders are violent?

[sozforex]

You seem to approve extrajudicial killing / assassination. Would be interesting if some countries decide to start assassinating Israeli terrorists in West Bank.

[LorenPechtel]

I would prefer people to face a proper court. But the various European countries did not want to anger the terrorists by handing them over.

[sozforex]

Or in Israel.

[Telemakhos]

I'd suggest that radical left-wing elements indigenous to Italy, such as those behind the Turin protests that left 100 police officers wounded a few days ago, are a perfectly plausible candidate; not every attack comes from without. There was another protest against the Olympics in Milan itself last night by left-wing elements who believe the games are economically and socially unsustainable [0]

[0] https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/07/europe/italy-protests-rail-da...

[ben_w]

Unfortunately with stuff like this, nation states will use groups like that as proxies.

Lots of governments.

For example, there's some other news at the moment that the USA is financing pro-MAGA groups across Europe, which I mention more because of Jan 6 happened at all than due to any specific evidence that the US government has knowingly given state support for terrorists.