A property owned by the German Parliament is located in the immediate vicinity of the Russian embassy in the heart of Berlin, on Unter den Linden. It is not the only embassy in the area, nor are they the only government offices. Yet an internal parliamentary investigation concluded that the constellation was dangerous in this case and offered an infinite range of espionage possibilities, so much so that, it informs today the world exclusively, it was necessary to run for cover.
Those who usually walk that stretch that leads to Pariser Platz, the iconic square on which the Brandenburg Gate stands, cannot fail to notice the differences. The Russian embassy is protected by guards and gates, the windows are screened, nothing can be seen from the outside. On the other side of the street, however, the building reflects the modern standards of the city’s architecture. The large and transparent glasses let you observe what happens inside. This is the Otto-Wels-Haus, owned by the Bundestag.
Numerous deputies are involved here and with the start of the war and the freezing of diplomatic relations between the two countries, doubt has arisen. The issue has been the subject of debate among parliamentary committees for weeks. So much so that, according to what has been learned from the worldmany of those whose duties were considered high security have been transferred, in some cases from the windows facing the embassy, to other parts of the building or to other buildings.
These are parliamentarians belonging to foreign and internal committees. They have been partially replaced by colleagues who deal with less sensitive issues in terms of safety such as family and education. One wonders why it was not done before, or even in the bud. A deputy who asked to remain anonymous expressed frustration with the Springer group newspaper, “it is unthinkable that MPs who deal with sensitive information every day should sit in the immediate vicinity of the embassy. Total protection is never possible but it is also not very logical to literally leave the window open to espionage ”.
Among the offices left on the street front, a curious coincidence, there are also those of the former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who two weeks ago resigned from his post for the Russian Rosneft, under pressure from the Social Democratic Party and the whole of Germany which condemned his position of lobbyist for Russia in the current context.