Germany: Russian spy activity becomes 'more brutal'
A security agency chief has warned that Moscow has a "very complex intelligence interest in Germany." However, far-right extremism is the country's current "greatest threat," he said.
Russian intelligence is as active in Germany as it was "during the Cold War era," the head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency (BfV) said in comments published by the German Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
BfV leader Thomas Haldenwang said the Kremlin has a "very complex intelligence interest in Germany in almost all policy areas."
"We recognize that Russia has significantly increased its activity," Haldenwang told the Sunday newspaper. "So far, we have only known the level we have achieved in the meantime from the Cold War era."
Moscow's "methods are becoming rougher and the means more brutal," the intelligence expert added, citing the murder of a Georgian man in Berlin in 2019, which the agency has blamed on the Russian government.
