Yep. The word "retaliation" is being used quite a bit lately. The ball seems to be in Russia's court right now. As far as trans-Atlantic cables are concerned, someone posted a map of these. I wish I had bookmarked it. Nevertheless, the map shows many cables running across the Atlantic to Europe and elsewhere. So, it appears cutting one, two, or more cables doesn't necessarily mean a dead Internet. If I remember the map correctly, it looked as if there were dozens upon dozens of cables traversing the Atlantic. I guess this is what is called 'backup'.