German intelligence says Russia’s spying operations in the country increased in 2022 and are expected to grow more this year. Meanwhile, German far right exploits opposition to military aid to Ukraine, report says.
Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the country’s domestic intelligence agency, has warned that Russian spying and disinformation operations on German soil have increased significantly in 2022, and are expected to continue growing this year as well.
A report released by the BfV on Tuesday (Feb. 20) states that Russia has shown increasing interest in disinformation campaigns. The document also mentions China as one of the “main actors” in espionage activities in Germany.
“In the future, we can expect more clandestine and aggressive actions by Russia, as well as activities in cyberspace,” the report says. According to the text, cyberattacks would be “regularly aimed at obtaining information, but may also be aimed at sabotage or serve the purpose of exerting influence.”
“Russia’s war against Ukraine also signifies a turning point for internal security,” says German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in the report’s introduction. “Especially in times of war, the leadership in the Kremlin relies on the work of the intelligence services.”
“The BfV report once again highlights the dangers to Germany’s internal security: espionage, cyber operations and attempts by external intelligence services to exert influence have become more unrestricted and sophisticated,” the body’s chairman, Thomas Haldenwang, said.
China’s activities, however, would be more focused on gathering information about German industry, as well as scientific and military institutions.
“In 2022, suspected Chinese state agents or state-guided agents continued to perpetrate cyberattacks on companies, government agencies and individuals, as well as political institutions,” the report said.
Right-wing extremism on the rise
The BfV also recorded an increase in the number of right-wing extremists in Germany, which reached 38,800 in 2022 – in 2021, there were 33,900 – of whom 14,000 are considered potentially violent.
The agency also pointed out that far-right movements have changed the focus with which they operate in public. The report pointed out that while in early 2022 these groups were still instrumentalizing protests against the restrictions imposed in the covid-19 pandemic, by the end of the same year they were trying to exploit opposition to German military aid to Ukraine and a potential energy crisis.
Once these issues failed to win support from the broader public, the far right, according to the report, turned to instigating anti-immigration sentiments.
According to polls, the country’s largest ultra-right party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), currently has about 20 percent support among voters, the highest percentage the acronym has achieved in many years. The BfV estimates that about 10,200 of the party’s 29,000 supporters are extremists.
Last year, a German court authorized the BfV to exercise surveillance over the AfD, concluding that there is sufficient evidence of anti-constitutional aspirations within the party.
Although the BfV does not comment on political issues publicly, President Haldenwang saw himself in the role of doing so. “We see within the party [AfD] significant currents that oppose the fundamental democratic order. What does that mean?” he asked journalists during a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday.
“Perhaps voters should observe that. It means that parts of the AfD spread hatred and agitation against all kinds of minorities here in Germany, especially migrants. Parts of the AfD also spread anti-Semitic views,” he warned.
Haldenwang also said that parts of the AfD were being “strongly influenced by Moscow.
Left-wing extremism also a cause for concern
While Faeser and Haldenwang emphasized that the far right remains the biggest threat to German democracy, the BfV also noted an increase in the number of left-wing extremists in the country. They reached 36,500 in 2022 – up from 34,700 the previous year – with more than a quarter of them considered potentially violent.
Haldenwang said the agency is keeping an eye on “small, clandestine groups that especially attack right-wing extremists,” but also on those who “see the state apparatus as the enemy, leading to brutal acts of violence against police forces.”
The president of the BfV said that a bottle containing a flammable and explosive liquid was thrown at police officers at a far-left protest in Leipzig, which local prosecutors consider an assassination attempt.
Climate activists not on the list
On the other hand, one group that was not even mentioned in the 380 pages of the report is the Letzte Generation (Last Generation), the collective of climate activists that has been carrying out acts with increasing public order disruptions in recent months.
Although German police have conducted operations across the country against the group, with several members arrested before they could carry out their interventions, Haldenwang said the BfV does not consider them extremists.
“We see a heterogeneous picture in the climate activist movement,” he explained. “Largely, we see people who act for more climate protection, who use their basic rights to protest, which is under the protection of the Constitution. On the other hand, we have small groups that clearly act in an extremist way. The Letzte Generation is somewhere within that spectrum.”