Aumento dell’attività di spionaggio russo in Germania: tempistica, tattiche e minacce – Robert Lansing Institute

Transcript:

Russia has sharply intensified its espionage activity in Germany since 2022. This escalation reflects shifts in Moscow’s intelligence priorities amid the war in Ukraine, worsening relations with the West, and the increasing strategic importance of Germany within the EU and NATO. The Kremlin’s services—particularly the GRU, SVR, and FSB—have retooled their operational methods to adapt to post-2022 European counterintelligence, using cyber-infiltration, illegal agents (“illegals”), and proxy networks. The threat is no longer theoretical: recent arrests, cyberattacks, and political influence operations have underscored the urgency of a unified German and European response.

Russia is a rogue state that sees Germany and the rest of free Europe as its enemy. Of course they are concentrating their efforts on all kinds of sabotage and hybrid warfare.

The question is what we are going to do about it? We really can’t afford the naivety that is still prevalent in some circles.

Strengthening the military is only one aspect of security, we need to massively improve our cyber and intelligence capabilities while implementing a much stricter border regime on Russia. Not just Germany, but Europe / Schengen as a whole.

We need to think long term. Even if the Ukraine war ends one day, Russia’s hybrid war against us won’t and we have to face this reality. In fact, the hybrid war may even become a hot one in future, depending on how “weak” we are perceived to be in Moscow’s eyes.

There should have been a travel ban on all Russian passports as soon as the conflict started. But no.