German domestic spy chief Selen says Russia is using virtually every tool at its disposal as part of hybrid operations, including assassinations planned in Germany; We expect further actions of a similar nature

Public attributions of this kind from a serving domestic intelligence chief follow a familiar sequence in European capitals: a named official briefing on hostile-state activity has typically preceded a harder policy response, whether expulsions of diplomatic personnel, tighter counter-espionage posture, or increased protective security, rather than arriving after it. The reference to planned assassinations on German soil is the more escalatory element; in past episodes where Western governments alleged state-directed killings or plots, the eventual follow-ons tended to include formal protests, sanctions designations, or coordinated allied statements, and the market transmission has historically run through defense-sector equities, European gas and power risk premia, and any perception of escalation risk in the NATO-Russia channel rather than through broad risk-off. The distinction worth drawing is between rhetoric and action: intelligence warnings alone have rarely sustained a market move, whereas concrete incidents or retaliatory measures have. The tells from here are whether Berlin pairs the warning with operational steps, whether other allied services echo the attribution, and whether Moscow's response raises the temperature further. As commentary from a security official rather than a policy decision, this sits in the category of positioning, though such warnings have on occasion been the advance framing for subsequent measures.