A German army reserve officer has been charged with spying between 2014 and 2020 for the benefit of Russia, the federal prosecutor's office announced on Friday (April 1).
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The suspect is accused of having provided the Russian intelligence services with information on the reservists of the Bundeswehr, the "
civil defense
" or even on the consequences of economic sanctions imposed on Moscow from 2014 as well as the site of the controversial gas pipeline North Stream 2, connecting Russia and Germany and suspended in February, specifies the federal prosecutor's office in a press release.
He also delivered elements on the site of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, linking Russia and Germany and suspended in February, according to the same source.
The suspect, Ralph G., was a reserve officer of the Bundeswehr and "
Headed a district liaison command as deputy chief
", details the federal prosecutor's office.
His civilian professional activity, which is not specified, also allowed him to sit on “
several committees of the German economy
”.
These two hats allowed, between 2014 and March 2020, this reserve officer, "
in relation with a Russian intelligence service through various people
", to transmit on "
numerous occasions, documents and information from partly from public sources, but also from non-public sources
”.
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In addition to information on sanctions, Nord Stream 2 or the German army in general, the suspect also delivered to Moscow "
personal data of senior officers of the Bundeswehr and the economy, including their private contact details
", according to the prosecution. Federal, responsible in Germany for cases of terrorism and espionage.
In return, he would have been paid, in particular via “
invitations to demonstrations organized by Russian government services
”.
Multiple spy cases between Berlin and Moscow
Several cases of alleged espionage have poisoned relations between Moscow and Berlin in recent years.
German justice had thus condemned at the end of October a former employee of a computer security company to two years in prison suspended for having transmitted data on the German Chamber of Deputies to Russia.
A trial opened in mid-February against a Russian scientist suspected of having spied on the European space program Ariane on behalf of Moscow.
Accusations of cyber-espionage against Moscow have also soured relations between Russians and Germans, even before the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
Russia is also accused of large-scale computer hacking which in 2015 targeted the computers of the Bundestag and the services of then-Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as NATO and the French-language television channel TV5 Monde.