Germany's intelligence chiefs caution about growing Russian threat

German intelligence chiefs warned on Monday of a rising threat from Russia, suggesting it could be capable of launching a direct attack on NATO "by the end of this decade," News.Az reports citing Deutsche Welle.

Speaking to an annual parliamentary oversight committee in Berlin, the heads of Germany's three intelligence branches – the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) – reported a "quantitative and qualitative" increase in acts of Russian-sponsored espionage and sabotage in Germany.

"We are observing aggressive behavior on the part of the Russian intelligence services," said BfV chief Thomas Haldenwang, adding that such activities "have reached a new level in recent months, which ought to be a wake-up call to all."

Increase in Russian-backed espionage, sabotage and disinformation
In addition to media disinformation campaigns and spy drones, Haldenwang said an incident at a DHL logistics center in the eastern city of Leipzig in July, which saw a package catch fire before being loaded onto a delayed cargo plane, was an act of suspected Russian sabotage.

According to BND president Bruno Kahl, Russian President Vladimir Putin has long since declared Germany an enemy due to Berlin's ongoing support for Ukraine, two-and-a-half years on from Moscow's full-scale invasion.

"Whether we like it or not, we are in direct confrontation with Russia," he said, stating that "a direct military confrontation with NATO [could be] a course of action for Russia" by 2030 as Putin pursues his long-term goal of weakening of the West and the establishing of a new global order.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the assertions, claiming that, actually, it is NATO which is threatening Russia by expanding eastwards.

Back in Berlin, the intelligence chiefs also warned of the security threat posed to Germany by China and Iran externally and by Islamism and right-wing extremism domestically. "There are fires everywhere," said Haldenwang.

News.Az