Connection to the case Skripal: Russian spies are said to have used French Alps as a base

According to a media report, Russian spies have used the French Alps as a base for operations throughout Europe. As the French newspaper Le Monde reported, the 15 agents were members of an elite unit of the Russian military intelligence service GRU, which deals with contract killings and sabotage. One of the spies is said to have been involved in the attempted assassination of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia.

Investigations of Western intelligence agencies after the attack on Skripal in March 2018 thus led on the trail of the spies. Between 2014 and 2018, the Russian agents had repeatedly resided in small towns in southeastern France, including Annemasse, Chamonix and Evian, the report said. The spies were active in Bulgaria, Moldova and Montenegro, but not in France. Weapons or other material "Le Monde" not ensured.

The Russian ex-agent Skripal and his daughter had just barely survived the attack with the neurotoxin Nowitschok in Britain in March 2018. A Briton who had come into contact with Nowitschok in the Salisbury region, however, died in late June 2018. Washington and other Western governments accuse the Russian intelligence agencies of being behind the attack. Moscow rejects the allegations.

Death in the Small Tiergarten

There is also a death in Germany, possibly involving government agencies in Russia. The Federal Government had expelled two employees of the Russian Embassy in the course of the investigation into a alleged contract killing of a Georgian in Berlin. The Foreign Office justified the step with the lack of participation of Russia in the Enlightenment. Previously, the federal prosecutor's office had seized the case. She justified this with indications that the man had been killed on behalf of Russia or Chechnya.

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