Thomas Haldenwang, head of Germany’s internal intelligence service (the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz), has warned that Russian intelligence work in Germany is as intense as it was during the Cold War.
In a media interview, he said that Russian espionage in the country was growing. Russian agents, he said, were establishing ‘contact in the environment of political decision-makers.’ He added that their methods were at the same time increasingly ‘brutal’ – citing the example of a Georgian man murdered in Berlin in 2019: an attack which the German authorities believed was carried out by Russian operatives.
Meanwhile, Bruno Kahl, head of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, warned about the same threat. ‘There is a change in morals, the approach more ruthless, and interests are being asserted more blatantly than in the past,’ he said.
He said that states such as China and Russia were attempting to provoke division and discord among Western countries.
Haldenwang, however, said that the greatest extant threat in Germany was from right-wing extremists. He said that this encompassed both terrorist groups and far-right political parties.
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