An employee of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), who was arrested on suspicion of collaborating with Russian intelligence, was transferring classified information about the situation in Ukraine to Moscow. This was reported by the NDR radio station and the WDR television company.
In the news that German citizen Carsten L. was taken into custody, it was stated that “They also say that they are conducting an investigation on the suspicion of blackmailing the police officer in security circles.”
The German Prosecutor General’s Office and BND intelligence do not comment on information about the detention.
The Tagesschau newspaper reported that the case would be “particularly sensitive” if the suspicions were confirmed. This will be considered a failure for the BND, whose agent managed to recruit another state’s intelligence service “in conditions of perpetual hardening and all-out conflict”.
Focus magazine, citing sources in the relevant metropolitan office, also reported that the arrested intelligence officer had access to the wiretapping results of German and friendly intelligence services.
On December 22, the German Prosecutor General’s Office announced that the Federal Intelligence Service employee was arrested on suspicion of collaborating with Russian special services.
In the statement made by the prosecutor’s office, it was stated that “in 2022, he conveyed the information he obtained during his professional activities to the Russian intelligence.” According to Die Welt newspaper, “a number of other members of the BND” were also under suspicion, but no further arrests were made.
Probation for duty in the General Staff
On 18 November, the Düsseldorf Higher District Court found the former Bundeswehr reserve officer guilty of collaborating with Russian intelligence and sentenced him to a suspended sentence.
According to the DPA agency, the man cooperated with the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces from October 2014 to March 2020.
The investigation shows that the reserve officer provided the Russian Federation with information about the German reserve forces, contact details and resumes of senior German military personnel, as well as information about the Nord Stream 2 project.
According to the presiding judge, the accused was motivated by “extremely pro-Russian sentiments and a desire to make himself popular and important among the Russian military.”
According to the DPA, the former officer’s lawyer requested that he be acquitted as none of the information conveyed to him was confidential. The accused himself admitted that he had handed over the documents to the Russian military attaché.
Spymania 2.0
In June 2021, Thomas Haldenwang, head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the German Constitution, said that Russia has stepped up its espionage activities.
“We only saw the level we see now during the Cold War,” the official said.
According to him, Russia uses “a large number of agents” trying to contact “political decision makers”.
By contrast, Bruno Kahl, head of the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, believes that Russia and China are trying to create more and more disagreements between Western allies by using “new tools” for this.
In June 2022, The Washington Post reported that former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl was involved in the case of Egisto Ott, a top Austrian counterintelligence official. According to the newspaper, Ott managed Austrian counterintelligence agents and also served as an intelligence officer in Turkey and Italy. According to the materials, he is suspected of selling state secrets to the Russian side and informing Moscow about “the Kremlin’s enemies in the West.”
The Ott case is one of many echoes of the closure of the Austrian intelligence service BVT, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight Against Terrorism, last year. Vienna decided to create new special services. Against this background, the WP article states that “Europe has begun to worry that Austria is sharing data with Russia,” and that is why many European intelligence agencies have stopped sharing information with Vienna.