German intelligence warns of Russian spies’ increased activity

Anticipating the activities of Russian agents, Berlin struck the visa regime for citizens of the Russian Federation.

In Germany, the activity of agents of the Russian special services was recorded as the Russian-Ukrainian war continued. These are the conclusions reached by the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Germany, Thomas Haldenwang, after the arrest of an employee of the German counterintelligence service on suspicion of espionage for Russia, the ZDF channel reports.

According to the manager, the detainee is suspected of passing on secret information to Moscow, which indicates how dangerous the activities of the Russian agency are.

Haldenwang believes that this is how Moscow is trying to compensate for losses after the expulsion of 40 employees of the diplomatic service due to the situation with Ukraine. For its part, Berlin has increased the issuance of visas to Russians to prevent the arrival of new spies.

“We are making great efforts to prevent the arrival in Germany of new persons who may be involved in Russian services.”

Haldenwang emphasized.

In addition, the head of the department noted that Germany also expects an increase in the number of cyberattacks by Russian hackers and cases of disinformation within the information campaign, but German foreign intelligence is well prepared for this case.

He added that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has long been preparing for increased espionage activity by Russian and other services, and the department has been significantly strengthened in terms of personnel and organizationally restructured, including due to closer integration with cyber defense, Haldenwang added.

We will remind, on December 21, 2022, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office of Germany announced the arrest of an employee of the Federal Intelligence Service, who is suspected of espionage for Russia.

After that, on December 29, journalists from the Wall Street Journal reported that a high-ranking German intelligence officer arrested in Germany had access to classified information about the war in Ukraine. The agent was reported to have worked for the Radio Intelligence Unit, which conducts electronic surveillance and works with the US National Security Agency.