Earlier this year, our colleague Boyan Panchevsky met a source in a swanky hotel bar.

The source worked for a European security agency.

So we were kind of exchanging notes on that and talking about other stuff.

And then, you know, after a few cocktails, I just asked him, so what's keeping you busy now?

And he was like, well, you know, among other things, this conspiracy to set airlines on fire.

The source told Boyana's story that sounded straight out of a spy novel.

So Boyan and his Wall Street Journal colleagues began investigating it.

So we pieced the puzzle together, and we found out that the Russians had come up with an

ingenious way to smuggle undetectable incendiary devices

and put them on airplanes.

That sounds terrifying.

Yeah.

I've spoken to veteran intelligence operatives, police officers, politicians, historians,

and this was not even happening at the height of the Cold War, Russia,

or rather than the Soviet Union, wasn't attempting conspiracies that might end

in the kind of mass casualties of Western civilians.

This plot was alarming, and European intelligence agencies saw it as a big step-up in Russian attacks in Europe,

a violent conflict that has largely stayed hidden.

Welcome. A violent conflict that has largely stayed hidden. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Kate Linebaugh. It's Friday, December 13th.

Coming up on the show, Russia's escalating shadow war in Europe.

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