Intelligence officials warned on Tuesday that foreign powers, including Russia and China, are actively recruiting private sector agents to carry out sabotage in Germany.
At the annual security meeting in Berlin, the Federal Office for Constitutional Protection (BFV) – the German Domestic Intelligence Agency – warned that authorities and businesses must be equipped with the ability to stop destructive and espionage.
BFV Vice President Sinan Selen said Moscow and Beijing increasingly commission private players to achieve their goals, rather than relying on security forces, state media and diplomacy.
Selen has highlighted several examples of alleged destruction in Europe in recent months, including incidents about German warships, arson attacks in Lithuania and Poland, and explosions of combustion devices in a series of packaging.
Other hybrid attacks include a cyber attack conducted in February by pro-Russian hackers at a Munich security conference.
The inspector general of the German German army also called for action to repel Moscow.
General Carsten Breuer said the separation between German internal and external security was the “gateway” to a hybrid Russian attack.
Breuer knows further that Russia will attack NATO territory within four to seven years.
He believes that Germany cannot bury its head on the beach, while Russia has strengthened the production of tanks and ammunition.
