Sanctions work!

July 21, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: Espionage, Exports, Germany, Russia, Sanctions, Smuggling, Spies, Trade, Ukraine, Weapons Leave a comment

In theory, at least.

Spy-linked Russians restart trade with German toolmaker – Heller Tools exported machinery to entities linked to a covert FSB smuggling network.

Companies linked to a Russian spy ring have resumed buying machinery from a German toolmaker — just months after the manufacturer was warned about sales to the same smuggling network.

Analysis by the Financial Times has established that Heller Tools, a Dinklage-based group founded in the 19th century, sold a total of $1.2mn of drills and other tools to companies linked to the so-called Serniya smuggling operation.

The money…

July 18, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Ammunition, Arms, Budget, Germany, Military, Military Aid, Money, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, USA, Weapons Leave a comment

She is all gone, señor.

Let’s see what Ukraine’s biggest, not second biggest military donor does next year.

Germany plans to halve military aid for Ukraine – Germany is planning to nearly halve military aid for Ukraine next year, from around €8bn (£6.7bn; $8.7bn) to around €4bn, according to a draft budget approved by the government.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner said Ukraine’s financing was “secure for the foreseeable future” due to a G7 group of rich nations scheme to raise $50bn from interest on frozen Russian assets.

Germany is Ukraine’s second biggest military donor, after the US. In 2024, Berlin’s budget for Kyiv is set at nearly €7.5bn.

German of the day: Attentat-Komplott

July 13, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Hurt Feelings Tags: Armaments, Arms, German, Germany, Language, Rheinmetall, Russia, Ukraine, Weapons Leave a comment

That means assassination plot.

German shock at reported Russian assassination plot – German political figures have reacted angrily to a report that Russia had plotted to kill the head of Germany’s biggest arms company Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger...

The company is one of the world’s biggest producers of ammunition and has become key to supplying Ukraine with arms, armoured vehicles and other military equipment.

Rheinmetall recently opened a tank repair plant in western Ukraine. Last month, it signed an agreement with Ukraine to expand co-operation in the coming years, including a joint venture to produce artillery shells.

German of the day: Aufrüstung

July 11, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts Tags: Defense, German, Germany, Language, Missles, NATO, Russia, Ukraine, War Leave a comment

That means rearmament.

US to send Tomahawks, hypersonics, other long-range fires to Germany – The U.S. will start deploying long-range fires units to Germany in 2026, according to a joint statement from both the U.S. and German governments released today amid the NATO Summit in Washington, D.C.

The new capabilities will “have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe. Exercising these advanced capabilities will demonstrate the United States’ commitment to NATO and its contributions to European integrated deterrence,” the joint statement reads.

“To our surprise,”

July 7, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: EU, Germany, Hungary, Putin, Russia, Ukraine, Viktor Orban Leave a comment

You didn’t want me to lecture you in person.

So I’ll just have to lecture from here at home.

Diplomatic tensions are escalating between Germany and Hungary after Budapest canceled a meeting between Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, that had been planned for Monday in Budapest.

The unusual last-minute cancellation — tantamount to a diplomatic éclat — comes after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other EU leaders strongly criticized a trip by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

Baerbock had planned to raise the issue of Orbán’s meeting with Putin during her visit to Budapest on Monday. But “to our surprise, the Hungarian side canceled” the appointment with Szijjártó “at short notice,” a German foreign ministry official told reporters late Friday.

Peace bunkers are out

July 2, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Berlin, Bunkers, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, War Leave a comment

Now “war bunkers” are in. Again.

Germany plans new war bunkers – German cities are calling for new bunkers to be built, to protect the population in the event of war. But critics argue there’s no point.

There might be no better way to gauge a country’s anxieties than by checking in on the companies building panic rooms and private bunkers.

Business has been going worryingly well for BSSD Defence, the Berlin-based company that builds “protection room systems” for private, business and military applications. As well as a range of home security equipment, the company offers everything from “pop-up panic rooms” for around €20,000 ($21,400) to full-scale bunkers for close to €200,000.

So, wait a minute.

June 19, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness Tags: Diplomats, Espionage, Germany, Russia, Spies, Spying, Ukraine Leave a comment

Are you trying to tell me that diplomats are spies?

Yikes. I honestly had no idea.

Russia buying spies to make up for expelled diplomats, German agency says – Russia has turned increasingly to blackmail and financial incentives to hire Germans to spy for it after the blow dealt to its intelligence services by Europe’s expulsion of some 600 Russian diplomats, Germany’s domestic security service said.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) said Russian intelligence services were spending big to recruit agents in Germany despite Western attempts to limit their operations since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Chronic overwork?”

May 28, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: Armies, Bundeswehr, Espionage, Germans, Germany, Russia, Spies, Spying, Ukraine Leave a comment

In the German army?

Damn. Dodging responsibility is more stressful than I imagined.

German army officer jailed for spying for Russia – A German military officer has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for spying for Russia.

The man, identified only as Thomas H, had been a captain in the army’s procurement office when he contacted Russian embassy in Berlin and passed on secret military information…

The man claimed that chronic overwork had impaired his ability to think critically about his actions.

No asylum for you!

April 21, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hypocrisy Tags: Asylum Seekers, Draft, Germany, Russia, Russians, Soldiers, Ukraine, War Leave a comment

You’re a European, after all.

And we have too many of those.

Germany: No asylum for Russian draft dodgers?

German authorities say that men coming to Germany from Russia to avoid being enlisted in the army are not at risk of persecution if they return to Russia.

“We are expected to speak out and be more politically active, and then we are denied asylum. According to several articles of the law in Russia, we can be thrown into jail just for taking part in protests here.”

I can’t stand it…

April 18, 2024 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: Agents, Espionage, Germany, Russia, Sabotage, Spies, Ukraine Leave a comment

I know you planned it.

What could it be? It’s a mirage. You’re scheming on a thing, that’s sabotage!

German police arrest two suspected of spying for Russia – German police have arrested two men on suspicion of spying for Russia. The German-Russian nationals are accused of acting as agents for sabotage purposes.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

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