“It’s no secret: As a logistical hub for NATO troop movements and as an active NATO partner Germany is always on the radar for foreign intelligence services,” Rosenberg added, her words echoing those of Estonia’s spy chief from last year.
Most recently, the German navy has seen sabotage operations aboard ships: broken cables, oil in the water supply, or metal shrapnel in a drive train.
Already before Moscow’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian covert operations were occurring in Germany. A German court expelled two Russian diplomats in 2021 over the murder of a Georgian citizen, for instance.
Russia’s secret service finds the recruits online, and they are often unaware of the ultimate goal, like the Ukrainian teenager who caused an explosion in an Ikea store in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius in March 2024.
