German defense minister warns of Russian ‘hybrid war’ – DW – 12/22/2024
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned on Sunday that Berlin should be prepared to respond to any coordinated attacks by Russia in the run-up to the federal elections and beyond.
A hybrid attack is a pervasive cyberattack that uses multiple methods to infiltrate and compromise a target’s IT systems, networks, or devices.
Pistorius’ comments come after German spy chiefs warned in October about an increased Kremlin threat.
What did Pistorius say?
,[Russian President Vladimir] “Putin is involved in hybrid attacks and Germany is particularly in focus,” Pistorius told the Funke Mediengroup newspaper group.
“He knows us well, Putin knows how to take a dig at us,” the defense minister said. “Ignoring this threat because it makes us uncomfortable will make it bigger, not smaller.”
Pistorius cited recent incidents targeting Germany’s infrastructure and energy supplies, including activities blamed on Russia in the North and Baltic Sea.
He said the threat could come from disinformation on social media, created by Kremlin-backed actors designed to divide German society, which could help far-right and populist parties.
“There are also campaigns on social media, interference in election campaigns and financing of voices, such as [the far-right Alternative for Germany] AfD and [the populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance] BSW claims that we are not concerned about our security, but we are moving towards war with Russia.”
“We must do everything possible to prevent Putin’s strategy from succeeding,” Pistorius said.
Russia’s military spending a threat to NATO!
Although there is no imminent military threat from Moscow, the defense minister warned that Putin could reintegrate his country by 2030, giving him the ability to attack NATO members.
“We should also expect that, over the next few years, Putin may test how united NATO really is by making gains in one place or another in the alliance’s sphere of influence,” Pistorius told the newspaper group.
Since launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin has turned Russia into a war economy, producing more weapons and ammunition in months than all the EU states combined in a year, the minister said. Produces gunpowder.
The government of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also increased military spending after the invasion, bringing Berlin’s defense spending in line with NATO goals for the first time in decades.
Asked if Germany was where it needed to be militarily, Pistorius said, “We’re on a good track.”
He said 97 major projects worth €58 billion ($60.5 billion) had been launched this year alone, surpassing last year’s record. But he also said it will take more than one legislative period to close the 30-year underfunding gap.
On Wednesday, the German Navy got key approval to expand its fleet with the order of four more advanced submarines in a deal with ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) worth about €4.7 billion.
Also this week, Pistorius said Berlin planned to increase the size of its armed forces to 230,000 from the current target of 203,000.
However, the minister told the Funke newspapers that Germany’s defense sector “needs time to increase production capacity to produce weapons and ammunition”, as the production of tanks, frigates and submarines could take several years. .
Pistorius is at the highest position in terms of public support
Separately, a poll for the Bild am Sonntag newspaper placed Pistorius at the top of an annual ranking of German politicians.
About 46% of those surveyed by Insa said they think the defense minister should have as much influence as possible in German politics next year.
Bavaria’s conservative state premier Markus Söder (CSU) scored 38% on the same question, while Scholz was relegated to sixth place with 28% support.
Scholz came behind BSW chief Wagenknecht, center-right CDU leader Friedrich Merz and AfD co-chair Alice Weidel.
mm/sms (dpa, Reuters)