The weekly “Der Spiegel”, citing sources in the German Ministry of Defense, reported that the ministry believed that “questionnaires from Moscow are being deliberately developed”regarding both specific military capabilities of the Bundeswehr and purchase schedules aimed at eliminating deficiencies in the army.
The chairman of the defense committee in the Bundestag, Thomas Roewekamp, expressed a similar tone. “It is very obvious that the AfD faction is submitting many systematically interconnected and very detailed inquiries regarding the military capabilities and capability gaps of the Bundeswehr,” he said in an interview with Spiegel.
Thomas Roewekamp stressed that – given the overall nature of these inquiries and the degree of detail – this could not be “explained by a legitimate interest in questions aimed at parliamentary control of the government.”
According to the head of the defense committee, there is rather a suspicion that “the goal here is to deliberately and systematically obtain military information of strategic importance from the German Ministry of Defense and the Bundeswehr, which would be very valuable to foreign powers, especially to Russia – (a country) that has been constantly intensifying espionage and hybrid attacks against Germany for years.”
“Spiegel” pointed out that the AfD faction in the Bundestag is particularly interested in topics related to drones, defense against them and critical infrastructure. The weekly cited the example of one of the parliamentary interpellations, in which the party asked about gaps in cybersecurity in the area of activity of the German Ministry of the Interior. MEPs submitted a total of 27 questions, including: how many data centers the Ministry of Internal Affairs currently has and which of them have emergency power supply capable of operating in crisis situations lasting several hours or days.
The AfD is also interested in preparing other ministries – digitalization, transport, finance and defense – for potential cyber attacks, it was noted.
In the opinion of “Spiegel”, detailed answers to such questions could be valuable especially for one person – Vladimir Putin.
Meanwhile, AfD politicians consistently reject accusations of using sensitive information for the benefit of foreign countries. The group's parliamentary secretary, Bernd Baumann, explained that similar interpellations are intended to “reveal the government's mistakes” regarding “in particular the condition of the entire infrastructure and the Bundeswehr.”
See also: This is what the defense of a NATO “front” country is supposed to look like. We were there for key exercises
The head of the German Interior Ministry, Alexander Dobrindt, said that the AfD was behaving like “Putin's German party.” He added that the investigative authorities must clarify the possible connections of AfD politicians and employees with Russia.
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