The President of the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD), Martina Rosenberg, has warned of increasing activity by opposing intelligence services in Germany. The threat scenarios for the Bundeswehr are diverse, said the head of the military intelligence service of the German Press Agency.
"State-controlled intelligence services use every means at their disposal to obtain information, exert influence and pursue the interests of their country," Rosenberg said. The MAD register "numerous abnormalities and spying attempts".
The former Bundeswehr disciplinary attorney took office at the head of the Cologne security authority in October 2020. She implemented a reform program whose declared aim is to intensify the fight against right-wing extremists in the German armed forces.
Defense against espionage is gaining in importance
With the Russian attack on Ukraine and the changed security situation in Europe, however, defense against espionage is now gaining in importance again. It is MAD's main business from the Cold War era - but now, in the age of the internet and social media, in a different way. MAD has around 1,800 posts, not all of which are filled and which also include tasks such as numerous security checks by soldiers and civilian employees.
The MAD is the smallest organization in the concert of the three secret services - including the Federal Intelligence Service BND as a foreign service and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) as a domestic service. It is designed as a "defensive" service that collects information and is intended to prevent betrayal.
It is already positioned differently than the Russian military secret service GRU, which is said to have a total of 37,000 to 40,000 men and women assigned to it and which has its own special forces with its "Spetsnaz" and maintains its network abroad with covert "travel squads". It is like subordinating the Special Forces Command (KSK) to the MAD and the BND and giving such an organization broad powers for covert operations or involvement in hybrid attacks.
How to deal with an opponent who is positioned in this way is now being continuously checked in the German security structures. It seems obvious that readjustments have to be made. Especially since the MAD has very narrow limits for its actions. Paragraph 14 of the MAD law stipulates that the service abroad can only be active in properties where the troops have offices and facilities.
Repeated drone flights over military terrain noted
In Germany, drone flights over Bundeswehr military sites and training centers for Ukrainian soldiers have recently been noticed repeatedly, without the background being clarified. An example: the military training area in Wildflecken, Bavaria. The Federal Ministry of Defense had announced that drones repeatedly flew over the area on the Bavarian-Hessian border in the night from September 30th to October 1st. However, other security authorities, such as the police, are responsible outside the direct vicinity of the Bundeswehr properties.
According to earlier reports, at the end of August Russian secret services tried to spy on the training of Ukrainian soldiers on western weapon systems in Germany. The MAD noticed suspicious vehicles in the vicinity of the military bases in Idar-Oberstein in Rhineland-Palatinate and Grafenwoehr in Bavaria. Experts say that espionage activities have increased significantly and are more frequent than during the Cold War, also because there are new points of attack on the Internet and social media.
According to Rosenberg, the activities of foreign intelligence services against the Bundeswehr were already at a "high level" before February 24, 2022 - i.e. before Russia attacked Ukraine. "The aim of our work is to identify any espionage activities, particularly by Russian and Chinese intelligence services, at an early stage and to fend them off effectively in cooperation with national and international partner authorities," said Rosenberg.
BND: Putin's declaration of war against the entire Western world
In a public meeting of the Bundestag's parliamentary control body, which is responsible for the secret services, the heads of the three services pointed out the overall dimension in mid-October. According to the BND, Russian President Vladimir Putin's war of aggression is not primarily about Ukraine's territory. It was a "declaration of war" against the entire Western democratic world, said BND chief Bruno Kahl.
According to Kahl, the Russian aggression against Ukraine did not come as a surprise. "What we see as the result of professional intelligence work has shaken up large parts of the German population, since it has unfortunately become common practice in public discourse over the past few decades to repeatedly ignore and suppress real threats - and corresponding warnings from the security authorities as scaremongering and to dismiss self-importance."
