World 1

12.08.2026.

9:28

"The Axis powers are gearing up again"

Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that Germany and Japan are returning to the practice of mass surveillance of their citizens, a practice last associated with the Gestapo and the Tokkō.

Izvor: B92.net

"The Axis powers are gearing up again"
Shutterstock/Cara MacMedia

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As Zakharova stated on her Telegram channel, two former Axis powers returned in July to surveillance practices that they had been forced to abandon in 1945.

“In July, two former Axis countries simultaneously returned to practices from which they had been forcibly weaned in 1945. The German Bundestag passed a new Federal Police Act — the most comprehensive reform of the agency since 1994. The Federal Police was granted the following new powers: real-time facial recognition at railway stations and airports, AI-powered crowd behavior analysis, identity checks without any grounds for suspicion, phone tapping, and the use of drones,” Zakharova said.

She noted that the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECO), described as “Europe’s largest internet industry association,” had assessed the law as an “introduction to mass digital surveillance.”

“The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) warned that the law is directly at odds with German regulations under which the government had committed not to resort to biometric surveillance. Germany’s postwar legal system was built on the principle of strict separation between the police and intelligence services — precisely because Germans knew from personal experience what happens when the police are turned into an intelligence service. Now that separation has been abolished,” she wrote, adding:

“Berliner writes: ‘These reforms undermine constitutional safeguards shaped by the historical memory of surveillance under the Nazi regime and the rule of the Stasi.’ German media have previously offered even harsher assessments: ‘Germany has not seen such a surveillance system since the Nazi era.’ By comparison, the Stasi of the GDR era — with its files and neighborhood informants — looks amateurish.”

She noted that Germany’s former ally Japan is facing a similar scandal.

“The Kumamoto Nichinichi Shimbun newspaper revealed that a field intelligence unit of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, stationed at Camp Asaka near Tokyo, had been conducting surveillance of its own citizens for years. A special team of around 50 to 60 personnel compiled personal dossiers on civilians in Japan. These dossiers — known as ‘individual BSDs’ (basic source data) — contained names, photographs, personal details, as well as information about family and finances. A separate section was devoted to the individual’s attitude ‘toward Japan and the Self-Defense Forces.’ Japanese courts had previously ruled such activities illegal. At the time, the military was literally assessing the loyalty of citizens.

“However, Japan has now moved to the next stage: an anti-espionage law has been adopted which, according to reports, requires the registration of individuals funded by foreign states and authorizes extensive surveillance of the population without a court warrant.

She recalled that the last time the Japanese military compiled dossiers on citizens’ loyalty was during the reign of Emperor Hirohito.

“Back then, the Higher Special Police — known as the Tokkō — monitored, arrested and tortured people because of their political beliefs,” she said.

Zakharova stressed that “81 years after the collapse of their previous regimes, Berlin and Tokyo appear to be acting in concert.”

“The postwar domestic order of the defeated aggressors was built on the principle of rejecting the means of mass surveillance of their own populations — practices that were among the key methods used by the Nazis during the era of concentration camps, genocide and horrific human experimentation.”

Zakharova also noted that such comparisons are now being made by media outlets and experts in Germany and Japan.

“When comparable systems of repression last existed, they were known as the Gestapo and the Tokkō. These comparisons do not come from me; they are being made by Germans and Japanese themselves — their experts and media. Tokyo and Berlin are ignoring both groups. The Axis powers are gearing up again,” Zakharova concluded.

 

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Russia Japan Germany Maria Zakharova

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