An employee of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), recently arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia, is suspected of passing secret data on the situation in Ukraine to Moscow, reported The Wall Street Journal, citing German officials.
According to the WSJ, the suspect, identified as Carsten L. by German prosecutors, was in charge of a department that processed classified information (satellite imagery, intercepted conversations, etc.) from Russia and Ukraine obtained by other Western intelligence agencies.
A report by German media outlet Tagesschau, citing radio companies WDR and DNR, said that the possibility of the BND officer being blackmailed is currently being investigated.
The arrest of the German intelligence officer, who secretly worked for Russia, was revealed on December 22. Carsten L. was detained and his apartment, as well as the BND offices, were searched.
In recent years, Germany has repeatedly exposed spies from Russia. In November, a court in Dusseldorf sentenced a reserve lieutenant colonel to one year and nine months' probation. The officer had been in contact with Russian military intelligence (GRU) agents and provided them with information about reservists in Germany.
A Munich court sentenced a scientist from Augsburg University to one year’s probation this spring. The man was found guilty of providing Russia with information about the European missile defense system.
Inside the BND itself, the last high-profile spy scandal occurred in 2014, when an intelligence officer in charge of mail and registering classified information in the agency’s foreign relations department was arrested. He was reportedly a CIA spy.
