Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser still has a lot to do shortly before the end of the year.Image: dpa / Kay Nietfeld
inland
The arrest of an employee of the German foreign intelligence service BND as a suspected Russian spy has raised concerns about German cooperation with Western partner services. “If information from the BND really did get to Russia, that would make cooperation with our partners enormously difficult,” said FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki the Düsseldorf “Handelsblatt” according to information from Friday.
Wolfgang Kubicki is already notorious for his sometimes violent choice of words.Image: dpa / Kay Nietfeld
The employee of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) is urgently suspected of treason. Against this background, Kubicki urged that the search for other possible Russian agents be intensified.
The FDP politician raised serious allegations against Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD).
For classification, however, it is first of all important that Kubicki likes to come around the corner with heavy criticism – and also likes to offend. He’s notorious for that in his party. Now the FDP Vice finds clear words and accuses Faeser of setting their focus wrong.
Kubicki said:
“While the Federal Minister of the Interior wants more checks on hunters and sports shooters using the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a Russian spy can apparently do whatever he wants with the BND before he is exposed.”
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP), on the other hand, welcomed the unmasking of the alleged spy. Buschmann congratulated the investigating federal prosecutor’s office on Twitter on Thursday evening on the arrest. “If the suspicion is confirmed, an important blow against Russian espionage has been struck here,” wrote Buschmann. This shows “how vigilant we have to be”.
To the background: Officials from the Federal Criminal Police Office arrested BND employee Carsten L. on Wednesday because of the transmission of information to a “Russian intelligence service” that took place this year. He was “urgently suspected of treason”. The information allegedly passed on is “a state secret within the meaning of Section 93 of the Criminal Code,” the federal prosecutor said.
The norm of the Criminal Code refers to information that “must be kept secret from a foreign power in order to avert the risk of serious damage to the external security of the Federal Republic of Germany”.
According to BND President Bruno Kahl, no further information on the case will be made available for the time being, so as not to give Russia an advantage in its plans to harm Germany. He referred to Russia’s “ruthlessness and willingness to use violence”.
“Anyone who has anything to do with Russia knows that people who could say something are easily eliminated.”
FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann
The chairwoman of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), described this approach as correct. “Anyone who has anything to do with Russia knows that people who might have something to say about it are easily eliminated.”, she told Bayerischer Rundfunk. “And that’s why, just to protect them, it would be good not to go into detail about it.”
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann sees the spy exposure as a wake-up call.Image: dpa / Fabian Sommer
The case is “a wake-up call to everyone that Russia is no exception to spying on us, too, in order to destabilize our system in the Federal Republic,” said Strack-Zimmermann. “The good news is that anyone spying for Russia needs to know that they need to be aware of being discovered. The authorities are wide awake and will strike if need be.”
Russia sending agents and spies to the West is nothing new.
President has been tense for decades Wladimir Putin his network of friends in right-wing parties, oligarchs, infiltrates federal offices, has state websites hacked and much more.
The war against Ukraine is sometimes the result of decades of entanglements and interdependencies. Russia has a long history of expanding its influence in a wide variety of fields—around the world.
Putin also maintains many contacts with right-wing, sometimes right-wing extremists and parties throughout Europe. This includes the AfD in Germany, as various research clearly shows. The right-wing populist publicist Jürgen Elsässer as well as the “Spiegel” editor and author Benjamin Bidder in one Contribution to the Federal Agency for Political Education writes.
Jürgen Elsässer at a demo in November with the motto “Ami go home”.Image: dpa / Sebastian Willnow
According to Bidder and according to the “FAZ” several times for political talks in Moscow. Among other things, he met the neo-fascist Russian politician Alexander Dugin, whose daughter was the victim of an attack earlier this year. These trips were apparently paid for by the Russian hosts.
(jor/afp)
The traffic light coalition has been in government since December 2021. Since then, Christian Lindner (FDP) has also been Finance Minister of the Federal Republic. Since then, the head of the FDP has been guarding the state finances and is committed to the debt brake. Together with his cabinet colleagues, he launched several relief packages last year – and the 100 billion special fund.
