The German politician made this statement in a comment to Guildhall.
“Vladimir Yakunin is a prime example of the Russian system’s meddling in Germany through hybrid intervention. Not only Yakunin is one of the key oligarchs of Putin’s regime, but he also served as the head of Russian Railways (the state-owned company ‘Russian Railways’). During his tenure, he established numerous connections in Germany,” the parliamentarian said.
“I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but, for instance, in 2005-2006, there was a plan among the Social Democrats to sell a part of our railway system, Russian Railways, to Yakunin. It created a vast network of ties between the railway structures of both countries. If Russia were a democratic state, there would be no problem, but they were already heading down the wrong path back then,” the politician revealed.
“And it’s not just that. He organized the ‘Dialogue of Civilizations‘ here (in Germany), he is a Russian oligarch with significant connections to politicians in Germany. Today, he is one of Putin’s main supporters. If you look at the German media, you will find numerous laudatory publications about what he has done in Germany for the past 15 years,” concluded Anton Hofreiter.
One of the examples of such active Russian intelligence activities in Germany mentioned in the report is the work of the “Dialogue of Civilizations” institute, founded by Russian oligarch Vladimir Yakunin. Russian and German analysts, former politicians, retired officers, and other representatives of civil society actively participated in the institute’s activities.
Recall that earlier, Anton Hofreiter stated that Europe is facing Russian hybrid aggression in various spheres of sociopolitical life alongside Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine. According to him, European political elites and representatives of civil society have a lot of work ahead of them in understanding the nature of such hybrid threats and countering them.
On April 20, the Center for Defense Reforms and the Guildhall Information Agency, as part of their joint project investigating subversive activities by Russian intelligence agencies, published a report on the involvement of retired officers from NATO countries’ armies and intelligence structures in active Russian operations aimed at weakening Western countries, undermining NATO and EU relations, isolating individual members of these alliances, justifying Russian aggression, and undermining military-technical assistance to Ukraine.
