Interference in Elections, Espionage, Fakes, Waves of Illegal Migrants: German Discusses New Level of Threat from Russia

German Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser has warned of the growing dangers posed by Russia's hybrid war of traditional and cyber espionage and accused the Russian Federation of encouraging illegal migrants to move to Western Europe to destabilise countries.

Nancy Feather said this in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

 "We are actually experiencing a new dimension of threats from Russian aggression. Espionage is also at least as active," Feather said.

She accused Russia of using the "refugee movement" as a tool to destabilise the West.

"Russia also wants to destabilise the West through migration," Fischer told Munich's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

She also warned of growing dangers from Russia's hybrid warfare.

"We are actually experiencing a new dimension of threats from Russian aggression here. We see attempts to influence through lies and mass disinformation. But espionage is also at least as active," added Faeser.

Germany will strengthen its defences against Russian influence in Western Europe in the coming months, the minister stressed.

With the European Parliament elections in June and the German elections in September, Faeser said the German government would be preparing to defend itself against cyber-espionage.

"We have to ensure that there are no hacker attacks on the electoral authorities or the broadcasting of election results."

Faeser is focusing on the wider use of artificial intelligence to defend against disinformation campaigns and opposes cuts to its 2025 budget.

The interior minister also accused the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party of being close to Putin.

"The Alternative for Germany adores Putin and despises modern Germany," Faeser said. The party has "radicalised from anti-European to anti-constitutional to a large extent".

Faeser did not rule out the possibility of banning the AfD, which was recently discussed in Germany.

"If a party wants to aggressively undermine the basic democratic order, it can be banned by the Federal Constitutional Court. If the radicalisation of the AfD continues, this is a possibility provided for in our constitution," said Faezer.