Russian espionage in Germany: Difference between revisions

With the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|collapse of the Soviet Union]], the KGB was dissolved and split into various successor services in the Russian Federation, including the domestic intelligence service [[Federal Security Service|FSB]], the military intelligence service [[GRU (Russian Federation)|GRU]] and the foreign intelligence service [[Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)|SVR]]. The last Russian troops withdrew from East Germany in 1994. In the chaotic 1990s, Russia had few resources for foreign espionage and political relations with Germany were relatively good. In August 1999, [[Vladimir Putin]] was appointed [[Prime Minister of Russia|Prime Minister]] by [[Boris Yeltsin]] and soon after he was elected President he consolidated and centralized power. His state was subsequently heavily influenced by former KGB employees and secret service officers, the [[Silovik|siloviki]]. Initially, Putin maintained good contacts with the West, but afterbeginning with the [[Russo-Georgian War|Russo-Georgian War inof 2008]], a new confrontation with the Western statesWest began, which also had a negative impact on [[Germany–Russia relations|German-Russian relations]]. After the end of the Cold War, counterintelligence capacities in Germany were significantly reduced due to underfunding of the relevant services and staff cuts.<ref>{{Cite web/German|url=https://www.reservistenverband.de/magazin-loyal/die-neuen-spione/|titel=Die neuen Spione|werk=Reservistenverband der Bundeswehr|zugriff=2024-07-03|sprache=de-DE}}</ref>