Figures. Now that Germany pretty much runs the EU, mostly because Spain don’t give af and the French - well, they’re the French - it makes sense that both Russia and China want a leg up on future policy and military movements. I’m pretty sure the CIA is hiding somewhere there in the fold as well…
Please don’t tell me some German duke or something will get assassinated, because I’ve seen this episode before…
To be clear: it’s highly likely this was happening for a very long while now, and Germany just now starting to notice.
It’s really crazy - the last several years have very thoroughly proven how deeply wrongheaded Merkel was with her approach to both Russia and China.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“It is really unusual to have detentions of three networks [allegedly] engaged in some sort of espionage for Russia and China coming almost at the same time,” said Noura Chalati, a research fellow at the Leibniz Centre for the Modern Orient.
Andrei Soldatov, an expert on the Russian security services, believes the case of the Russian-German pair could reflect a desire by the Kremlin escalate attacks on aid to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Roderich Kiesewetter, a former German Army officer who is now an opposition MP, alleged China was seeking to gain access to advanced research that could be useful for military or other purposes.
A particular low point was the leaking in March by Russian sources of a phone call between top generals discussing supplying long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
Months earlier a high-ranking official in Germany’s BND foreign intelligence service called Carsten L went on trial, accused of leaking classified information to the Russians in exchange for payments of some €400,000 (£343,000).
Some in the intelligence services see the recent high-profile arrests as a way of highlighting the extent of hostile foreign infiltration in Germany - and as a chance of boosting their argument for more powers.
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