Germany’s equivalent of MI6 is reportedly struggling with staff shortages, low morale and sickly employees despite facing unprecedented challenges from Russia and other rogue states.
The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) is unable to fill 700 vacancies and its current team of spies is too short-handed to grapple with Russian espionage activities, according to Bild, the German tabloid.
Citing sources in the agency, Bild also reported that the number of BND spies taking sick days was higher than the national average, with more than a thousand employees having 30 days off.
The newspaper suggested that a work-from-home culture where spies are spending one day per week away from their office computers was contributing to the BND’s problems.
There are also shortages in the agency’s budget, which has forced spy chiefs to transfer agents from its Russia desk, a top priority, to handling concerns about South American drug cartels and North Korea’s missile programme.
Bild noted that around 800 of the BND’s 6,500-strong workforce are currently on secondment to the Bundeswehr, the German army, which is itself struggling with severe staffing shortages.
The BND’s creaky bureaucracy is another source of concern, as applications to become a spy can take as long as 13 months to process despite the escalating tensions with Moscow.
The report will raise concerns among Nato allies that Germany is ill-equipped to handle the threat of Russia, following decades of complacency about its security services and a general lack of funding.
It comes despite Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, radically changing Germany’s foreign policy towards Russia in response to the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
In a Feb 27 speech, he declared a “Zeitenwende”, or turning point, in Germany’s strategy as he announced a major funding boost for its armed forces.
However, critics feared that the new policy was too little too late, while some aspects of it – such as a proposal to bring back conscription – are expected to be watered down because of a shortage of funds and resistance from Left-wingers in Mr Scholz’s coalition.
‘Classical battleground’
In recent months, Nato leaders have warned that Germany is a key target in Russia’s ongoing “hybrid warfare” campaign, which has sabotaged key infrastructure in Europe supporting the Ukrainian army.
Russia is also suspected of having ordered a foiled assassination plot on Armin Papperger, the chief executive of major German arms firm Rheinmetall, which has been providing Kyiv with huge quantities of artillery ammunition.
The plot was detected by American security services, who then warned the Germans. As a result, Mr Papperger now lives under round-the-clock security.
Earlier this month Stephan Kramer, the head of domestic intelligence in Thuringia state, warned in an interview with The Telegraph that Moscow viewed Germany as a “classical battleground” for “hybrid warfare” against Nato.
“Germany … as it is located in the middle of Europe, is a wonderful target for all types of logistical sabotage. Almost any supply for Ukraine has to go through Germany,” he said.
Concerns about security breaches in the BND have been a long-running issue for Germany’s allies. In the 1950s, its first head of counter-espionage, Heinz Felfe, worked as a double agent for the KGB. The BND closed down its counter-espionage unit in the 1990s and only reopened it in 2017 – and even then it only had a small team of a few dozen staff.
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