Merz: Russian influence on German society is his biggest current concern
Speaking at the Berlin Global Dialogue conference, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Russia's destabilization of German society is his greatest current concern, ranking it above worries about the economy, the EU, the United States and China. He cited daily interference with German internet and communications systems, infrastructure attacks and a recent drone incident at Leipzig Airport as examples of Russian hybrid activity, and framed the conflict as a fundamental attack on the post-1990 European political order rather than simply a war in Ukraine.
Key points
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz made the remarks at the Berlin Global Dialogue conference in Berlin.
- He listed interference with internet and communications, infrastructure attacks and a drone incident at Leipzig Airport as examples of Russian hybrid activity.
- Merz said Russian interference with German internet and communications systems occurs on a daily basis.
- He described the conflict as a fundamental attack on the post-1990 political order, not merely a war in Ukraine.
- The German public, in Merz's view, still underestimates the scale of the Russian threat to society.
- BND president Martin Jäger has separately warned that confrontation with Russia has taken on a more dangerous quality with a risk of armed conflict.
- The German Defence Ministry says the Russian sabotage threat to Bundeswehr facilities is now considered "significant".
Why it matters
A sitting German chancellor publicly placing Russian hybrid activity at the top of his concern list, ahead of economic and geopolitical rivals, marks a notable escalation in Berlin's framing of the threat. Pairing that statement with warnings from the BND and the Defence Ministry suggests the German government wants to prepare the public and its partners for a longer, broader confrontation with Moscow.
What happened
At the Berlin Global Dialogue conference, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Russia's efforts to destabilize German society worry him more than the state of the economy, the EU, the United States or China. He pointed to attacks on German infrastructure, daily interference with internet and communications systems, and a drone incident at Leipzig Airport as concrete examples of Russian hybrid activity. Merz argued that Germans still underestimate how large the Russian threat to their society is, and he framed the wider confrontation not as a war limited to Ukraine but as an attack on the political order established after 1990. He also rejected the idea of Ukrainian capitulation. Separately, the head of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Martin Jäger, has warned that the confrontation with Russia has acquired a more dangerous character with a risk of armed conflict, and the German Defence Ministry has confirmed to ZDF that it now considers the Russian sabotage threat to Bundeswehr facilities "significant."
How Ukrainian sources describe it
Both Ukrainian sources reporting on the speech focused on Russian hybrid activity against Germany itself and on the post-1990 European order, rather than centering events on the battlefield in Ukraine. The underlying material records that Merz rejected the possibility of Ukrainian capitulation, though that point was not foregrounded in the supplied headlines.
How international sources describe it
The synthesis does not separately set out an international frame distinct from the Ukrainian one.
Background
Germany has been steadily raising its public assessment of the Russian threat. The BND president, Martin Jäger, has stated that confrontation with Russia has reached a new, more dangerous quality with a risk of armed conflict, while the German Defence Ministry has confirmed that the Russian sabotage threat against Bundeswehr facilities is now considered "significant." Merz's speech at the Berlin Global Dialogue sits alongside these assessments.