According to Euronews, Russian intelligence services are using Telegram and other platforms to seek people in Germany for petty acts of sabotage, surveillance or provocations. As Martin Jäger, head of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), stated at a parliamentary hearing in the Bundestag, recruitment is conducted through pro-Russian channels: potential operatives are offered small sums for photographs of military facilities or arson. Jäger described the current situation as an "icy peace" that "could at any moment escalate into open confrontation," and called for preparations for further escalation.
The Mechanics of Recruitment
The publication describes the scheme: handlers monitor user activity in pro-Russian channels and then approach them with offers. According to Ukrainian cyber expert Kostiantyn Korsun, intelligence services can identify subscribers and administrators by ID, build profiles and assess loyalty. "At this stage, the contact is psychological in nature," Euronews quotes Korsun as saying. He noted that after initial contact, communication may move to more secure messengers such as Signal or Wire.
As an example of a pro-Russian channel, the publication mentions "Neues aus Russland" by German blogger Alina Lipp, who is under EU sanctions; according to Correctiv, a network of chats spreading content has formed around it. In response to a Euronews request, Telegram stated that "calls for violence or the destruction of property are expressly prohibited" and are removed, and that only its administration can identify channel subscribers.
The Role of Vladimir Vedeneyev and GlobalNet
Citing an OCCRP investigation, Euronews reports that Telegram's technical infrastructure is controlled by a previously unknown network engineer, Vladimir Vedeneyev. His company manages Telegram's network equipment and IP addresses, has exclusive access to some servers and the right to sign contracts on behalf of the platform. The publication emphasizes that there is no evidence that Vedeneyev's firm directly cooperates with the Russian state. At the same time, according to OCCRP, two closely linked companies worked with sensitive government clients, including the FSB, a research center for de-anonymizing internet users and a state nuclear laboratory.
Telegram confirmed to Euronews that "Vedeneyev's company Global Network Management Inc. (GNM) is one of dozens of providers of limited telecom services, such as colocation and equipment installation, always under Telegram's guidance and without access to data, encryption keys or internal systems." According to the platform, IP routing and network operations are performed exclusively by its engineering team.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov stated in his post that over its 12 years of existence, the platform has "not disclosed a single byte of private messages." According to him, in response to a lawful court order under the European Digital Services Act, Telegram can provide only the IP addresses and phone numbers of criminal suspects, but not their correspondence.
Possible Countermeasures
Disinformation expert Christopher Nehring, in a comment to Euronews, noted that German intelligence services are limited in their actions on the platform but can make recruitment more difficult through technical methods, for example by creating fake decoy profiles using AI. "I can launch a hundred 'honeypots' that will occupy the handlers," he said, adding that such methods are legally controversial in Germany. The publication recalls that former BND president August Hanning called German intelligence a "vegetarian among the world's intelligence services."
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