Russian agents on German land. Counterintelligence reveals the scale of the Kremlin operations

The Russian Federation adapts its activities to changing operating conditions and needs. He does not shun down decisive actions – espionage and sabotage through the recruited lonely perpetrators – according to the Federal Report of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BFV) for 2024.

The 412-page report of the German counterintelligence published on Tuesday is a deepened analysis of threats to the constitutional order and Germany's security, resulting from both internal and external actors' activity.

At the level of external threats understood as espionage, sabotage, disinformation and propaganda activities, both foreign services and individuals, German counterintelligence pointed to CZterech main actors: Russian Federation, China, Iran and Turkey. These countries are referred to as “main espionage entities, intelligence cyber attacks, unlawful pressure and proliferative activities directed against Germany.”

In the case of Russia, it was noted that the actions of its intelligence services “They have been at a high level for years Even before the start of the invading war against Ukraine in 2022 “, and” broadly extensive espionage activities extend to varying degrees of intensity to the target areas of politics and administration, business, including critical infrastructure, science and technology and army. “

As the authors of the report emphasized, “Russia adapts its actions to changing conditions and operational needs and does not shy away from decisive actions, such as espionage and sabotage using recruited, undecided, lonely perpetrators. “

“Following the western sanctions imposed in connection with the Russian deposit war in the center of attention (Russian intelligence – PAP) was found EU common foreign policy and NATO allied policy, as well as German foreign and economic policy. Particularly interesting are the goals of Germany's security policy as well as the EU and NATO in relation to the further course of the war, the possible end of the war and the attitude towards Ukraine and Russia in this area, “it was emphasized in the document.

According to the analysis, the Russian intelligence services before the Bundestag elections tried primarily to obtain information on “party-political structures (…) and the positions of individual parties to be able to influence the process of making political decisions before the election and assess the consequences of the result of the election.”

The document also quotes examples of specific activities of Russian intelligence in Germany. Among other things, the case of May 2024, when the Higher National Court in Duesseldorf sentenced a professional soldier and former Federal Office for equipment, information technologies and technical support of the Bundeswehr to three and a half years in prison for agent in connection with violation of official secrets. The thing concerned the transfer of several documents marked with the clause “only for official use” to the General Consulate of Russia in Bonn in order to transfer them to Russian intelligence services.

The report also pointed out that from the beginning of the war in Ukraine in Europe began to appear More and more low -level intelligence agents.

“These are recruited persons (…) by the Russian intelligence services for short -term fulfillment of tasks, usually through social media and messengers, without belonging to their intelligence services themselves,” the authors of the analysis explained.

The German counterintelligence also emphasized a clear increase in the number of sabotage acts in Europe, including arson, vandalism and propaganda activities, which “are or can be attributed to Russian intelligence services.”

In the opinion of counterintelligence, these activities are implemented in particular by low -level agents, and their scale of danger in Europe and Germany “depends on Moscow's political and operational decisions”.

In addition, “Russian leadership strives to deliberately weaken Europe through a policy aimed at separating American security from European and disturbing military support and other help for Ukraine.”

The authors of the analysis also emphasized the importance of Russian methods of influencing public opinion in Germany, citing Activity of pro -Russian influencers and disinformation campaigns such as “Doppelgaenger” (double) consisting in the dissemination of a lying narrative using cloned pages of recognized media.

According to German counterintelligence, Russia tries to undermine the trust of German society in state institutions, discredit the “community of Western values” and “create divisions”. The primary goal is to weaken the European Union and NATO.

According to the report, last year there was also a clear increase in extremist tendencies with leftist and right -wing color. The potential on the side of Islamism and Islamic terrorism also increased.

In 2024, the number of crimes classified as extreme right -wing increased by 47.4 percent. (from 25,660 in 2023 to 37,835 last). In turn, these motivated leftist extremism were 37.9 percent. more (from 4240 in 2023 to 5857 last).

The number of potential Islamists operating in Germany was estimated at 28,280 people. It's almost A thousand more than in 2023. In this group, a large dispersion can be observed. On the one hand, they are people identified with the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda branches, Hamas and Hezbollah, and to the other-with smaller Propalestinian organizations, with Turkish organizations gathering both extreme left and right-wing forces. Their common denominator is usually a hostile attitude to Israel, which gained strength after Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the start of the war in the Gaza Strip.

Reports of the Federal Office of Constitution protection are published every year, as well as reports of Lands Counterintelligence Departments. The tradition of developing and publishing them dates back to the early 1960s. Initially (in Germany), they were limited to presenting the threats resulting from right -wing and leftist radicalism. In 1969, for the first time, the authors of the report also included in it issues related to espionage and recruitment attempts undertaken by communist services, including relative to West German students and diplomats. (PAP)

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