Published: · Region: Europe · Category: intelligence

Germany’s Quiet Purge of Suspected Russian Spies Signals a Harder Line on Covert Warfare in Europe

Berlin has expelled or deported around 400 Russian citizens since the 2022 invasion, including more than 80 diplomats widely seen as intelligence officers. The campaign turns the Russian Embassy into a contested frontline of Europe’s shadow war and raises the stakes for how far Germany is willing to go to blunt Moscow’s covert reach.

Germany has been steadily pruning Russia’s footprint on its soil since the full‑scale invasion of Ukraine — and new figures show just how far Berlin has gone in turning its capital into a more hostile environment for Moscow’s spies. Since February 2022, German authorities have expelled or deported around 400 Russian citizens, according to a tally that includes more than 80 diplomats and 313 other nationals. German assessments cited by local reporting describe many of those diplomats as intelligence officers operating under official cover. One prominent tabloid characterized the Russian Embassy in Berlin as an “Agentennest” — a spy nest — serving as a command node for hostile activities in…

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