No war, but also no peace: Russia's hybrid attacks on the West have long been part of everyday life, but we are not yet aware of it

In 2023, Reinhard Bingener and Markus Wehner published the book "The Moscow Connection," a fundamental investigation into the ignominious entanglements of German Social Democrats with Putin's Russia. What made it particularly explosive was that it featured a who's who of leading SPD politicians since the early 2000s: from former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to current Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and former party chairman, as well as Minister of Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs Sigmar Gabriel.

Following the publication of the book, there were isolated calls from the ranks of the Greens and Free Democrats for a parliamentary investigation into these networks, which were largely responsible for Germany ignoring the militant Russian actions in Ukraine for far too long and, on top of that, becoming dangerously dependent on Russian gas.

That this never happened is not surprising when reading the new book by the journalist duo Bingener and Wehner. The authors, who work for the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung," show that not only the SPD had its "Moscow connection," but also the CDU – albeit less pronounced and largely limited to eastern Germany. Consequently, the CDU/CSU also has little interest in structurally addressing its sometimes overly close ties to Moscow.

At best, the CDU and SPD can be credited with immediately breaking with Moscow after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In contrast, the AfD and the newly created BSW (Federal Social Democratic Party of Germany), which to this day continue to play the pro-Russian card and do not shy away from portraying Putin as the victim of what they imagine to be an aggressive NATO eastward expansion.

For Bingener and Wehner, close contacts with political parties in Germany are a building block in Russia's hybrid warfare against the West. Moscow now imposes virtually no restrictions on itself, apart from immediate military escalation. However, provocations involving drones that intrude into the airspace of NATO states have reached a new level in recent weeks.

The authors demonstrate that a major focus of Russian aggression is directed against Germany, which, due to its history and widespread anti-Americanism among large segments of the population and politicians, is considered particularly susceptible to anti-Western disinformation and propaganda. Bingener and Wehner describe the full range of hybrid warfare.

The examples they cite are not new; many of them will likely be familiar to attentive observers. But the sheer sum of them and the radicalization of Russian behavior evident in them create a force that is horrifying—and inevitably raises the question of how anyone can still seriously believe that Putin can be shown limits using the tools of diplomacy.

It also becomes clear how closely the instruments of Russian hybrid warfare interlock and build upon one another, creating an almost impenetrable thicket of lies and misinformation in which even enlightened contemporaries risk becoming entangled.

With analog and virtual acts of sabotage, contract killings, and thinly disguised state terrorism, such as incendiary devices in cargo planes, Moscow is now consciously accepting the deaths of innocent bystanders. Through controlled migration flows to Europe, accompanied by a constant barrage of media disinformation, attempts are being made to gradually undermine trust in Western democracies and the ability of their actors to act.

Bingener and Wehner also target China. According to their analysis, China is currently (still) limited to absorbing large amounts of personal data worldwide. This involves linking data together, thus exploiting the personal and systemic vulnerabilities of individuals and companies. This is complemented by cyberattacks against companies and government agencies.

Globally active Chinese corporations like Huawei are also contributing to this. They are gaining access to critical infrastructure through legal means – a phenomenon that security authorities have been warning about for some time, while companies have been turning a blind eye to it.

It is illuminating to consider the hybrid warfare methods practiced in Moscow and Beijing in relation to the respective geopolitical ambitions of both countries. While China is working to politically weaken and economically outperform the liberal West, and especially the United States, Putin's goal is to restore Russia to a superpower status, by any means necessary.

In this sense, what we are seeing today in terms of hybrid warfare from Russia could be merely a foretaste of what lies ahead – assuming that a technologically far more capable China also crosses the threshold of military expansion.

How can the West defend itself against this? Bingener and Wehner rightly point out the vulnerability of Western democracies in security matters, which is a price to pay for freedom. However, they also emphasize that they are not defenseless against attacks. However, simply rearming the Bundeswehr is not enough. What is crucial is equipping critical civilian infrastructure with the necessary resilience. And above all, awareness must grow that hybrid attacks have long been part of our everyday lives.

Reinhard Bingener / Markus Wehner: The Silent War. How Autocrats Attack Germany. C.-H.-Beck-Verlag. Munich 2025. 362 pp., Fr. 30.90.