As you know, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and special agencies throughout the country yesterday arrested members of a group that’s reported to have been plotting to overthrow the government.
Among the detained conspirators were both representatives of the German political elite, including members of the infamous Alternative for Germany party (Judge Birgit Malsack-Winckemann, who was supposed to be appointed Minister of Justice), some Russian citizens, and even a nobleman! This is about Heinrich XIII, 71, of the noble Reuss family, whom terrorists planned to put at the helm of the state.
So it was set to be a kind of pseudo-monarchy and, once again, this whole endeavor just cries “Russia”. In fact, Russia is always there when it comes to the destabilizing certain countries and sowing chaos there. And I would not be surprised if the role of Russia and their intelligence services in this story was truly, really significant. For example, as it was during the foiled Montenegro coup in 2016.
It should be recalled that, as a result of the thwarted coup d’état in Montenegro, Eduard Shishmakov and Vladimir Popov, staff operatives with the Russian defense intelligence (GRU), were arrested. They handled local, Serbian performers – a mob led by Sasa Sindjelic, who were also nabbed.
But why be surprised? It’s just an attempt by Russian agents to set up a coup in Germany, the country hosting largest number of Russian agents in the EU…
I have repeatedly reported the fact that Germany in recent decades has become a springboard for the Russian intelligence agencies in Europe to further spread its network. Perhaps, only in France are there more Russia’s agents of influence and recruited assets.
In addition, whether it will surprise you or not, the Kremlin’s elite military specops forces have long been deployed in the EU and are ready for activation at any moment. And they surely will carry out any order that might come from Moscow. But they don’t do this brazenly, opting for veiled tactics. For example, the Sistema network of sports clubs, founded by Russian emigrants, is actively exploited by the Kremlin’s intelligence services to recruit assets from the most radical strata. As of 2020, there were from 250 to 300 militants under the Russian control in Germany alone.
Not so much at first glance but, in fact, such a force is enough to catalyze destabilization and stir up a radical layers, also financed from Russia.
But in this latest “coup plot” story, I was most interested in a certain nuance. The conspirators intended to change the current form of government in Germany to a wannabe-monarchy. And, in fact, this scenario is very familiar to me, because as part of my investigation into the operations of a Polish fake princess, I encountered a very similar phenomenon in Poland, albeit in a less radical form. Perhaps the very reason it wasn’t that radical was because he plot never matured into something more definite and promising.
But we will talk about the Polish version of the coup some other time, and in more detail. In the meantime, it’s time for the European intelligence agencies to start filtering all pro-Russian figures. It better be done as soon as possible as “tomorrow” might be just too late.