Sipher expressed his opinion in an interview for the German Focus weekly, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s polskieradio.pl website reported.
According to the former CIA operative, German agents have been less keen to take on the Russian security services than their colleagues from other European countries, polskieradio.pl reported.
‘German agents have stuck their heads in the sand’
Sipher told Focus magazine: “German agents are being stopped by politicians, who seem reluctant to admit that Putin may be up to something evil. And so the German agents have stuck their heads in the sand.'
He added: "Analysts from Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND), working in the Russia department, are completely useless,” as cited by polskieradio.pl.
‘They feared they might learn something they don’t want to know’
Sipher added that the leniency of the German security services towards Russia “seemed to be caused by the fact that they feared they might learn something that they don’t want to know,” polskieradio.pl reported.
“Because then they would have to do something. And they knew that the Chancellor’s office and the government don’t want that,” the ex-CIA agent said, as cited by polskieradio.pl.
'Very bad reputation'
According to Sipher, this approach has meant that the German security services have a very bad reputation among NATO partners, when it comes to cooperation in intelligence work directed at Russia, Focus noted, as quoted by polskieradio.pl.
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Source: polskieradio.pl, focus.de