German intelligence chiefs on Monday warned of the increasing threat posed by Russia, which they said could be capable of launching a direct assault on NATO "by the end of this decade."

Speaking to an annual parliamentary oversight committee in Berlin, the heads of Germany's three intelligence branches – the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) – reported a "quantitative and qualitative" increase in acts of Russian-sponsored espionage and sabotage in Germany.

"We are observing aggressive behavior on the part of the Russian intelligence services," said BfV chief Thomas Haldenwang, adding that such activities "have reached a new level in recent months, which ought to be a wake-up call to all."

Increase in Russian-backed espionage, sabotage and disinformation

In addition to media disinformation campaigns and spy drones, Haldenwang said an incident at a DHL logistics center in the eastern city of Leipzig in July, which saw a package catch fire before being loaded onto a delayed cargo plane, was an act of suspected Russian sabotage.

According to BND president Bruno Kahl, Russian President Vladimir Putin has long since declared Germany an enemy due to Berlin's ongoing support for Ukraine, two-and-a-half years on from Moscow's full-scale invasion.

"Whether we like it or not, we are in direct confrontation with Russia," he said, stating that "a direct military confrontation with NATO [could be] a course of action for Russia" by 2030 as Putin pursues his long-term goal of weakening the West and establishing a new global order.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the assertions, claiming that, actually, it is NATO which is threatening Russia by expanding eastwards.

Back in Berlin, the intelligence chiefs also warned of the security threat posed to Germany by China and Iran externally and by Islamism and right-wing extremism domestically. "There are fires everywhere," said Haldenwang.

Similar warnings from British intelligence

The warning from Germany's intelligence chiefs came less than a week after their British MI5 counterparts warned of similar threats posed by Russia, Iran and branches of the so-called Islamic State (IS), particularly from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

And it came on the same day that a public inquiry in the United Kingdom heard that a perfume bottle containing the lethal Novichok nerve agent that fatally poisoned an innocent British woman following the attempted murder of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English town of Salisbury in July 2018 contained "enough poison to kill thousands of people."

Skripal himself told the inquiry that he believes the Kremlin was behind the assassination attempt, though he acknowledged he had no concrete evidence.

Germany: Bundeswehr in Moscow's sights

Back in Germany, Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) president Martina Rosenberg told the parliamentary committee that the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, were a particular target for Moscow, whose activities she called "a matter of concern."

"Whether investigations into German arms deliveries to Ukraine, training programs or armaments projects, or acts of sabotage to instill a feeling of insecurity," she said the Bundeswehr was facing a "sharp increase in acts of espionage and sabotage."

All three German intelligence chiefs insisted that their branches require greater powers to continue to work effectively, with BND boss Kahl criticizing current government plans to increase political control over the country's intelligence services.

"We must not completely stifle our output," he said, warning that such increased oversight would come at the expense of "efficiency, security and freedom."

Kahl requested improved data exchange mechanisms between BND and Bundeswehr, particularly in cyber defense, while BfV president Haldenwang demanded more powers to "monitor the telecommunications of dangerous groups" and facilitate the mass analysis of data by artificial intelligence.

Neither are reportedly possible under current German law, which MAD boss Rosenberg lamented would also prevent military counterintelligence from deploying alongside the Bundeswehr's battalion which is due to be stationed in Lithuania near the Russian border.

Demanding "more operational leg-room" for the intelligence services, Kahl said that the Zeitenwende, the historical turning point infamously proclaimed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, is "still awaiting completion."

mf/lo (AFP, Reuters, dpa)