The German Attorney General has officially filed charges against Ralph G., a German national and a Bundeswehr Reserve Officer, for spying on the German military from October 2014 to March 2020.
From the Attorney General’s statement: “the accused provided the Russian intelligence service with information on the reservists in the Bundeswehr and on civil-military cooperation and the “civil defense” associated with it. He also provided insights from the economic sector, for example on the consequences of the economic sanctions imposed on Russia in 2014 for Germany and the European Union and on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. In addition, Ralph G. sent his contacts at the Russian intelligence service personal data from high-ranking members of the Bundeswehr and from business – including their private contact details.”
Ralph G. was reportedly a Deputy Commander of a District Liaison Command, unnamed at this time.
This charge continues a string of arrests made in Germany, targeting suspected Russian spies.
lnur Nagaev, 29, a Russian-born scientist, working at Bavarian University, was arrested last June and will now face trial for espionage after prosecutors alleged he agreed to cooperate with Russian foreign intelligence service SVR in 2019.
Prosecutors believe Nagaev ‘passed on information on research projects in the field of aerospace technology, in particular, the various development stages of the European launcher Ariane’, while working on his PhD at Augsburg University.
In October 2021, a German national, identified only as Jens F, obtained PDF files with the floor plans during the course of his work for a company that was hired to maintain electrical equipment in the Bundestag’s buildings, he then passed these plans the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. According to prosecutors, the suspect decided in 2017 to pass the floor plans to Russian intelligence. He sent a data storage device to an employee at the Russian embassy who mainly worked for the Russian intelligence agency GRU, they said.
