German Intelligence: Russia is using Snowden to drive a wedge between the US and Europe
According to the BND, Moscow used Edward Snowden to create turmoil between the United States and Western Europe. German intelligence services claim that the Kremlin uses every opportunity to discredit Germany.
Russia is trying to use the well-known US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden to drive a wedge between Western Europe and the United States. This opinion was expressed by the head of the Federal Intelligence Service BND, Gerhard Schindler and the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Hans-Georg Maassen in an interview with Focus, released on Friday, April 15th.
"The fact that stands out is that Snowden uncovered documents on the cooperation of the US NSA with the BND intelligence agency and British GCHQ," Schindler pointed out. Maassen, in turn, noted that "at first glance it may seem that Snowden wanted to inform the world community about how the NSA collects materials on its own citizens and politicians from other states, but in reality it's not like this."
"Publishing Snowden's documents has caused particular damage to Germany, the United States and other Western nations. It's immediately evident that Snowden has not publicized any documents about such countries as China and Russia, which are the main subjects of the NSA operations. Snowden published secret documents in an attempt to sour relations between Western Europe and the United States," Hans-Georg Maassen said.
Psychological Warfare
His colleague, Gerhard Schindler, said in an interview with Focus that "Russians are very effective in carrying out so-called psychological warfare,” the targets of which are Ukraine, the Baltic States, Western Europe in general and Germany in particular. Russia uses the whole spectrum of media, especially social media, the head of the BND said.
According to Maassen, there is evidence that the Kremlin is using every opportunity to discredit Germany. "Disinformation, infiltration, influencing, propaganda and demoralization—all this extends to the German Bundestag. Russian agents have already made a significant number of attempts to establish contacts with the staff from MP offices and political funds," Maassen said.