In the early hours of February 24, 2022, when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his all-out war against Ukraine in an attempt to decapitate the government and wipe the country off the map, the then head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Bruno Kahl, wasn’t at his desk in Berlin. When the first bombs fell on Kyiv, Russian paratroopers tried, in vain, to capture the Anatov airfield, and Russian Spetsnaz special forces as well as Wagner mercenaries roamed the capital to capture or kill members of the Ukrainian government, Kahl found himself very close to the action—in the German Embassy in Kyiv.
The BND chief had arrived the previous day by plane to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Kyrylo Bodanov. When German Ambassador Anka Feldhusen was ordered to immediately evacuate that evening, Kahl stayed behind—“securing the building, destroying some documents, taking others,” as he revealed a year later. When it was clear that his meeting was not going ahead, for obvious reasons, Kahl left in a five-car convoy. He soon found himself among the tens of thousands of refugees who were also heading west. It took the BND chief and his security team 36 hours to reach the Polish border.
The episode was quickly presented as yet another German intelligence cock-up. “German Spy Chief Was ‘Evacuated by Special Forces,’” shrieked the British Daily Mail. But Kahl’s presence was no blunder. At the Munich Security Conference, which had taken place only a couple of days earlier, Kahl had been talking to US and British intelligence chiefs, who were convinced that Putin would strike soon. He had also met with Badanov, who had invited him to Kyiv as soon as possible. Aware of the significant risk, Kahl wanted to send a signal.
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Kahl’s nine-year run as BND president, which ended in September 2025—the second-longest after the BND’s founder, Reinhard Gehlen—marked a watershed. The “Dienst” (service) used to be as infamous for its many scandals as for its ineffectiveness—former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who led Germany in the 1970s, once remarked that one learned more from reading newspapers than from BND reports. And until recently, this was the general view in government circles. But the agency was able to show its usefulness to the Social Democrat (SPD)-led government of Olaf Scholz, especially on Russia. Kahl, meanwhile, made the case that a competent foreign intelligence service with greater powers and abilities was vital to German foreign policy at a time of war in Europe. Slowly, the BND expanded its competences, and Kahl went on the record in November 2024, at an event at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), warning that Putin wanted to be in a position to confront NATO “by the end of the decade.”
Remarkably, Scholz left Kahl, a protégé of the late former Christian Democrat (CDU) German interior and finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble, in his post even though the BND suffered a setback in December 2022 when a double agent was discovered within its ranks who had passed documents on to Moscow. Kahl’s successor, Martin Jäger (whose previous post, in turn, was ambassador in Kyiv, as Feldhusen’s successor), is continuing on the same path. Russia’s activities and its war remain the main focus; the BND’s strongest foreign presence is in Ukraine.
Now first drafts of a new BND law, which would strengthen the foreign intelligence services much further, are making the rounds in the chancellery of new CDU Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The overall aim: to give the BND roughly the same powers as the services of leading allies so that it should be able to close the gap with the United States’ almighty National Security Agency (NSA) or the United Kingdom’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) when it comes to “signal intelligence.”
If the new law comes to pass, the BND would be able to sift through far larger internet data flows or hack into the likes of Google or Meta if the companies were not forthcoming with information. Spying on internet communications that has been stored away is a particular hot topic in Germany, where the saving of vast data volumes for law enforcement or indeed intelligence purposes is not currently allowed. In contrast, it’s legal in France to keep such data for four years, and for “as long as necessary” in Italy and the UK, the chancellery points out.
While the draft BND law reads a little maximalist, with the likely prospect that it will be toned down in the intra-government discussions, it has the right level of ambition. In times of the United States becoming increasingly unreliable, Germany’s intelligence services need to be able to be as effective as possible. This also applies to the domestic intelligence services, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), the Federal Office for the Defense of the Constitution. Its new president is Sinan Selen, who was born in Istanbul, grew up in Cologne, and is one of Germany’s sharpest legal minds—part of a new generation of top officials who are willing to respond confidently to Germany’s and Europe’s dramatically changed circumstances.
Preparing the Ground
“It is important to look at Ukraine as part of a comprehensive picture,” Selen told me recently. “Moscow’s ultimate aim is to rebuild the power of the Soviet Union—including satellite states and buffer zones,” Selen said. “Influence operations are being conducted and conflicts that could become hot ones are being stirred in order to prepare the ground in Europe while military capacity is being built up to be operational by 2029. By that time, the Russian government wants to be in a position take further steps.”
“Germany is seen by Russia as ‘enemy number one,’” Selen said. “Not in the sense that I’m foreseeing Russian tanks rolling into Germany. But our defense industry, our armed forces, our politicians, and people considered dangerous by Moscow—they are all in the Russian intelligence services’ crosshairs.” For a German political elite that, until 2022, turned a blind eye to the character of Putin’s rule and long-term aims, this is still not always easy to accept. Even Merz recently spoke of “finding an equilibrium” with Russia.
Germany’s intelligence services, however, seem free of illusions. “In response, we are turning the BfV into a very robust counter-intelligence service,” Selen said. “We know that we are dealing with a long-term threat.”
Henning Hoff is executive editor of INTERNATIONALE POLITIK QUARTERLY.
