The former director of the German intelligence agency, "stop sharing information with Austria"

A former director of Germany's intelligence service warned Western officials to stop sharing information with the government of Austria due to its alleged proximity to the Kremlin. August Hanning was the head of the German federal intelligence service, known as the BND, from 1998 to 2005. He continued to serve as the senior interior ministry official until his retirement in 2009. In an interview published Wednesday in the newspaper. German Bild, Hanning said that "with an intelligence service like that of Austria, which cannot protect its own secrets or the sources and sensitive information of its partners, caution is needed."

Hanning's statement came less than a week after the Washington Post stated in an important article that most Western intelligence services had stopped sharing sensitive information with the Austrian government.

The newspaper said the dismantling of intelligence cooperation between Austria and other Western countries was sparked by an unprecedented police raid on the headquarters of the Austrian intelligence agency in February of this year.

On February 28, Austrian police raided the central offices of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (BVT), which operates as Austria's internal intelligence agency. That evening, thousands of classified documents had been removed from the BVT headquarters and kept in police facilities in Vienna. Austrian officials said the raid was sparked by allegations made by South Korean intelligence that Austrian passports were acquired by the North Korean government.

However, according to The Post, the raid was politically motivated by Austria's far-right freedom party, which is part of the country's ruling coalition. The purpose of the raid, the article said, was to neutralize the BVT, whose mission includes defending the Austrian constitution from internal threats from the far left and far right. According to The Post, many Western intelligence agencies were alarmed by the February 28 raid on the BVT and immediately stopped sending sensitive information to the Vienna headquarters. He also said that Western European powers are concerned about the seemingly close relations between some members of the Austrian government and the Kremlin. Last week, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin traveled to Austria to attend the wedding of Karin Kneissl, the Austrian foreign minister who is politically close to the Freedom Party. The Russian leader said he attended Kneissl's wedding in a "purely private" capacity. But this has not appeased the spirits of the leaders of the European Union.

 

The former director of the German intelligence agency, "stop sharing information with Austria"

| INTELLIGENCE, PRP Channel |