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Russian embassy building in Berlin (archive photo)
Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / picture alliance / dpa
An unexplained death occurred at the Russian embassy in Berlin.
According to information from SPIEGEL, property protectors of the Berlin police discovered a lifeless body on the sidewalk in front of an embassy building in Berlin on October 19 at around 7:20 a.m.
Resuscitation attempts by rescue workers who were called in were unsuccessful.
Apparently the man fell from an upper floor of the embassy complex on Behrenstrasse in the Mitte district of Berlin.
According to an official list of diplomats, the 35-year-old had been accredited as second embassy secretary in Berlin since summer 2019.
The German security authorities, however, saw him as a disguised employee of the Russian domestic secret service FSB.
He is also said to have been related to a high-ranking officer in the second service of the FSB.
In Russia, the department is responsible for counterterrorism, among other things, and is linked by Western intelligence services to the so-called Tiergarten Murder, in which a Georgian exile was shot in broad daylight in Berlin in the summer of 2019.
According to research by SPIEGEL, the investigative platforms Bellingcat and The Insider and the US news broadcaster CNN, officials from the second service of the FSB were also involved in the poison attack on Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny in the summer of 2020.
Embassy speaks of a "tragic accident"
In the case of the diplomat found dead, the Russian embassy did not agree to an autopsy of the body, according to SPIEGEL information.
From security circles it was said that the circumstances of the alleged fall and the cause of death were "unknown".
Since the dead had diplomatic status, the public prosecutor could not carry out a death investigation.
It was also unclear whether there were indications of third-party negligence.
According to SPIEGEL information, the diplomat's body has now been transferred to Russia.
When asked, the Russian embassy spoke of a "tragic accident" that was not commented on for "ethical reasons".
A similar incident had already caused a stir in 2003.
At that time, the porter for the representation fell from his apartment on the embassy grounds.
mgb / kno / srö / fis
