In This Info-War, The Problem Is Not Only Russia
Nathalie Vogel
Much has been written in recent weeks regarding the readiness of Western democracies to fight disinformation in the “information war” led by the Russian intelligence services.
[Read our report:
The Menace of Unreality: How the Kremlin Weaponizes Information, Culture and Money]
While it is true that disinformation and active measures remain disciplines in which Russian services still excel, their goal, especially in Germany, would have been more difficult to achieve had the other side not revealed to be not only unprofessional but also downright clumsy. It begs the question: Was this a coincidence?
The years during
Gerhard Schröder‘s chancellorship, Angela Merkel’s predecessor, were a blessing for the Russian services. Experts such as
Edward Lucas allege that although espionage indeed occurred, the Schroeder administration had a tendency to cover up breaches, handling Russian operations on German territory in a very accommodating manner – if at all. Indeed, the usual level of industrial espionage aside, no major disruption of German-Russian relations was registered between 1999 and 2005.
Since 2005, however, not only industrial espionage has been skyrocketing, but
the last five reports of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, show that Russian Federation intelligence has significantly raised its level of activity in all areas on German soil.
As we now know, another entity which had been following closely the impact of Russian activities
has been US counter-intelligence.
US counter-intelligence (CI) has a long history of monitoring Soviet and later Russian activities in Germany. Such monitoring can be viewed as helicopter-parenting at best and as necessary micromanagement at worst.
http://www.interpretermag.com/in-this-info-war-the-problem-is-not-only-russia/