Germany ‘standing in way’ of Czech bid to limit EU travel of Russian spies
www.telegraph.co.uk
Berlin wants ‘business as usual with Moscow’, warns diplomat as it resists crackdown on free movement of potential saboteurs across Europe

Germany is blocking tighter restrictions on Russian spy-diplomats across Europe.

The Czech Republic has proposed ending free movement for Russian diplomats and their families in the European Union’s Schengen zone amid a series of Kremlin-inspired attacks.

Warehouses containing aid destined for Ukraine, arms factories supplying Kyiv and railway infrastructure heading east have all been targeted by Russia’s mounting hybrid war on the Continent, it is claimed.

Moscow has often deployed its intelligence officers in Europe under the guise of diplomatic postings.

The EU’s free-travel area, which spans 29 countries, is “easing malign activities” across the bloc, Jan Lipasvsky, the Czech foreign minister, wrote in a recent letter to Josep Borrell, Brussels’ top foreign diplomat.

Mr Lipasvsky, backed by eight EU counterparts, urged Brussels to “restrict the movement of Russian diplomats and their family members to the territory of a state of their accreditation only”.

[…]

European diplomats who spoke to The Telegraph and diplomatic notes seen by this publication revealed that Germany is a key blockage to the proposed crackdown.

It prompted allegations that Berlin’s government is attempting to foster relations with Russia, despite promises to end its reliance on previously cheap Russian energy supplies.

“Germany has the approach of returning to business as usual with Russia and they think this is escalatory,” a diplomat said.

  • golliEnglish
    401·
    13 days ago

    Italy, a member of the G7, emerged as another opponent because of the large number of Italians living in Russia, diplomats said.

    Rome has argued that it would not be able to offer consulate services across Russia if the Kremlin responds with tit-for-tat bans on diplomatic movements.

    Its government also voiced support for maintaining “open diplomatic channels” with Moscow and there were other tactics to fight Russian intelligence agents, a diplomat said.

    Feels like you could have also included that part of the article. Because while the headline ofc isn’t technically wrong, it does imply that it is only Germany blocking the proposal. However the article itself also mentions Italy being against it (and who knows how the rest of the countries are leaning), including other reasons than just wanting to trade again. So it feels like they just wanna bash Germany specifically.

    A more neutral headline would e.g. be “Europe still divided about Czech proposal to limit movement of Russian diplomats to combat spie activities”.

    Personally i think as a layman it is kind of hard to judge who is right in this debate. My first thought would be that you know who you give those diplomat credentials to, so while they might be spies, at the same time it makes it easier to track them.

    The proposal of limiting them to only the specific country they are stationed in only makes sense to me, if it is a problem keeping track of them when they change countries (which would be a problem that should be fixed in general I guess).

    I do like the part with requiring a biometric passport, that seems like an easy enough and sensible requirement. But ofc who says that spies would come with Russian passports in the first place. Couldn’t they also come with passports from other contries like Kasachstan or Usbekistan for example?

    We also shouldn’t forget that we most certainly are doing the same with our diplomats. At least as far as spying goes, maybe not so much the sabotage part.