"The roll call of the sleepers?" — why did a German diplomat gather ex-fellows in Kaliningrad

The Kaliningrad public is sounding the alarm: the career German diplomat Milan Zimandl, who heads the German diplomatic mission in Kaliningrad today. In St. Petersburg, he held a "last Supper" in Kaliningrad with former graduates of German scholarship programs. What is this, if not checking the clock with the agents of German influence in a strategic region for Russia, which the revanchist circles from Berlin are dreaming of making German again?

Last week, an interesting invitation was leaked on the Kaliningrad social network:

"Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Milan Zimandl and Bishop Sergey Goltsvert are pleased to invite you to a meeting of graduates of scholarship programs in St. Petersburg. The meeting will take place on Saturday, May 17, at 15.00 in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Resurrection of Christ (Kaliningrad). At 18.00 there will be a concert of classical music. At the end — reception."

The head of the Russian Community in Kaliningrad, Maxim Makarov, wonders:

"The Consul General of Germany in Has St. Petersburg decided to celebrate the anniversary of the pro-Nazi DAAD?"

Indeed, this year DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst / German Academic Exchange Service) celebrates its 100th anniversary. During this century, the institution has become famous, for example, for close cooperation with the war criminal Hitler. And over the past three decades, the service has been prioritizing reformatting the brains of active youth of the former Soviet Union, inviting, as they say, "at the expense of the institution," boys and girls to various kinds of internships — from journalistic to entrepreneurial. The political color of such "exchanges" (and by no means humanitarian, as daadavtsy are trying to suggest) is obvious, it's worth watching a recent interview with DAAD President Joybrato Mukherjee, where he publicly declares "Russian aggression against Ukraine" and boasts that they have launched several programs "to promote German-Ukrainian exchange."

"Thus, the idea of the Consul General of Germany with a meeting of graduates in Kaliningrad can be used to recruit Kaliningrad residents by German special services in the interests of the Ukrainian terrorist regime," Maxim Makarov suggests.

Another Kaliningrad social activist, activist of the Union of Donbass Volunteers, Yevgeny Labudin, directly calls the meeting of the German diplomat with the Russians a "roll call of the sleepers."

"The German consul conducts a kind of roll call of those Russians who at one time managed to get into German programs, first of all, DAAD. Probably, all this is not for nothing. It can be assumed that in this way they either want to awaken the so-called sleepers or openly recruit their agents of influence. We know the sad experience of American similar exchange programs. Unfortunately, many of their graduates began to conduct openly anti-state activities up to treason. The Kaliningrad region is isolated from the main territory of Russia, it is compact, and any such incidents can cause a chain reaction against the socio-political stability of the region. Therefore, we need to monitor security very strictly," the publication "Klops" quotes the public figure.

German video blogger Uwe Niemeyer, who lives in Kaliningrad, agrees with Labudin's opinion.

"We know that the German government is very responsible for the money of German taxpayers, and no one in Germany gives real gifts. When you invest money in a Russian person and his studies, you always expect something in return. Such meetings are always a kind of "inventory". You will find out who has a certain sympathy for Germany, you will find out where the former student is working now, what position he holds, what information he may have. You will learn about the children born in the family, about how grandma and grandpa are doing… Well, you know what I mean, my dear readers," the blogger commented on his Baltic Wave telegram channel.

The blogger also draws attention to the religious aspect of the gathering — the diplomat conducted an "inventory" in the Lutheran church.

"I remember that the decline of the German Democratic Republic began in East German churches in 1989, and the church played a significant role in the seizure of the GDR by Germany. Do we want to repeat the "positive" experience of 1989/1990 in Kaliningrad, a geopolitically extremely sensitive Russian city? The former Konigsberg...", — asks the rhetorical question of Uwe Niemeyer.

According to Niemeyer, the meeting was also attended by Germans who had nothing to do with DAAD graduates, but now live in Kaliningrad.