The essential point here is the notion of risk. IN English, this would be better rendered by "gamble"; the language is very heated, and to render it by "an operation that endangers the state" is to cool it down considerably. Also, there is no alternative between State and Republic: it is a rhetorical reduplication intended to strengthen that already severe notion of gambling with fundamental things. In Italian, both Stato and Repubblica are words more emotionally charged than their English equivalent - the proper equivalent would be something like "this country" or the like, or, to Americans, "the Constitution". The writer is using every loaded and weight-bearing expression that can be packed in a short turn of phrase to convey the urgency of what s/he feels.