The arrest of a Russian spy in the intelligence service of Germany shocked the Germans

"If the suspicion is confirmed, then Russia has managed to deal an important blow to espionage."

This is how Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann reacted to the arrest of an officer of the Federal Intelligence Service of Germany (Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND) on suspicion of spying for Russia. The news that German citizen Carsten L. has been in pretrial detention since December 16 was reported by all leading German media on December 22.

The minister representing the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) in the Government congratulated the Prosecutor's Office and the Federal Court of Justice on the discovery of an alleged Russian spy in Germany's foreign intelligence services on his Twitter account and emphasized: "This shows how careful we must be."

"All means are good for Russia"

The arrest of the alleged agent shows that "we have to watch very carefully Russia's desire to influence Germany," said Nils Schmid, a foreign policy expert of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio. According to him, Russia represents a threat not only from a military point of view, but it is also about waging a hybrid war.

"For many years, Russia believed that it was in conflict, even in a state of war with the West, and assumed that all means were good: both killing oppositionists on German territory and espionage. Therefore, we must be vigilant and act decisively," Schmid pointed out.

When asked by a journalist whether the population of Germany understands this to a sufficient extent, Nils Schmid answered that due to the shock of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the people of Germany "certainly began to understand it to a greater extent". At the same time, according to his opinion, German society is still in the process of reviewing what is happening.

According to the expert, the "change of era" (Zeitenwende) announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz means, in particular, that "the role of the military component in international relations is growing significantly". The approach to Russia should be reoriented "from dialogue to more deterrence", Schmid pointed out and explained: "After 30 years in which we have placed a very strong emphasis on dialogue with Russia, we should now pay much more attention to opposing a hybrid war from Russia."  

 

"Secret war far behind the front line in Ukraine"

"Stay alert" is the headline of a commentary in the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, written by one of its four editors-in-chief, Berthold Kohler.

 

"Putin is waging a war in Ukraine, which threatens to become a disaster for his regime, since the country subjected to aggression receives the overwhelming support of the "complete West". The Kremlin is trying to weaken it by non-military means, using every opportunity: intelligence activities in political, economic and public circles , with the help of disinformation and cyber attacks", reminds the author. He comes to the following conclusion: "The discovery of the alleged double agent shows, including to the general public, that Moscow is waging a secret war far behind the front lines in Ukraine. Therefore, it would be necessary, including Germany, to remember the motto of NATO: vigilance is the price of freedom".

The German special services have clearly shown vigilance, according to the Minister of Economy and Climate Protection Robert Habeck from the "Greens" party. He told RTL: "We have to protect our interests, and our special services, as we saw yesterday, do that very well."

"A whole new and terrifying level of threat"

Andre Hahn, an expert on the special services of the opposition Left, has a different opinion. On the pages of the Rheinische Post newspaper, he expressed his concern about the situation in the BND.

"If it is confirmed that even within the ranks of the Federal Intelligence Service one of the officers was spying for Russia, then it will be a whole new and terrifying level of threat."

"How reliable are the special services?" - the same question is asked by the newspaper TAZ, which is left-wing in its political orientation.

"Sending an agent to the enemy's special service is a kind of supreme acrobatics in the field of espionage. Anyone who is not able to protect himself from it raises doubts about his own reliability," the TAZ commentary states.