The non-governmental organization Transparency Germany criticizes shortcomings in the national security strategy of the federal government. “Unfortunately, the security strategy falls short when it comes to fighting corruption,” says Alexandra Herzog, chairwoman of Transparency Germany. The strategy is a holistic concept of the federal government that was decided a few days ago. In it, fighting corruption in 2022 was explicitly mentioned as a priority for security policy. According to Herzog, the United States is taking the problem more seriously.
The federal government should draw the necessary lessons from the Azerbaijan affair, Qatar or Russia’s influence. These “affairs” mentioned as examples were about the targeted bribery of democratically elected politicians here by third countries. Last year it became known that Qatar and Morocco have given numerous EU parliamentarians gifts of money. They hoped for political backing. The Azerbaijan affair concerned the corruption of politicians in the Council of Europe, including members of the Bundestag. As a result, the autocratically governed Azerbaijan was able to prevent the Council of Europe from passing a resolution in 2013 denouncing the arrest of opposition figures in the country. The Council of Europe is the continent’s leading human rights organization, and Azerbaijan’s “caviar diplomacy” has done massive damage to its reputation.
Russia, on the other hand, which the National Security Strategy describes as the “greatest threat” for the foreseeable future, has managed over the past decade to provide numerous prominent former government politicians with lucrative positions in the energy industry. They had the goal of influencing them, including the most prominent in this country: ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD). Only after Russia invaded Ukraine did the German government really become aware of the danger of this “strategic corruption”.
Transparency Germany understands strategic corruption as the use of corruption as a foreign policy weapon. Designed for strategic, long-term influence, this form of corruption is an integral part of the non-military arsenal of modern war. This is also known as “hybrid warfare”. Corruption undermines citizens’ trust in democratic institutions and therefore poses an immediate threat to national security. As an economic power and an influential member of the EU, Germany is – along with the USA and the European institutions – a major target of this form of corruption by autocratic states.
The basic idea of the National Security Strategy is to take into account all internal and external threats to Germany’s security for the first time. In addition to the military threat, this also includes cyber attacks, possible attacks on critical infrastructure and climate change.
Interpol wants to follow the motto “Follow the money”.
What is often overlooked: International environmental crime is making it more difficult to achieve climate goals. Illegal waste disposal, the killing and trade in protected animal species or the criminal timber trade are in the hands of international mafia gangs. It is the third largest criminal activity in the world, grossing hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Paramilitary groups and mercenary troops get 38 percent of that revenue, Interpol reports — you could stop the transfer of this dirty money by following it. True to the motto: Follow the money.
For this reason, the finance ministers of the G7 states expressly pointed out in the Petersberg Communiqué in 2022 under the German presidency that combating money laundering in connection with environmental crimes could contribute to combating climate change and the loss of biological diversity.
But it is precisely when it comes to combating money laundering that there is a problem in Germany, as the international anti-money laundering institution FATF found in its 2022 report. The federal government has promised to improve the fight against money laundering, but the national security strategy remains vague. “It is not clear from the text whether the federal government is considering a Unexplained Wealth Order that we advocate,” says transparency expert Mickael Roumegoux Rouvell. According to Roumegoux Rouvell, this would provide German law enforcement agencies with the necessary legal powers to effectively implement sanctions against the elite of authoritarian countries involved in corruption or human rights abuses and have their property confiscated.