Secret service, agent, espionage: the vocabulary sounds like something from the Cold War. In Munich, a scientist has been accused of spying for the Russian secret service at the University of Augsburg.
Munich – He is said to have worked at the university and spied for the Russian secret service: The trial against a young scientist who is accused of espionage in the field of rocket research begins this Thursday before the Higher Regional Court (OLG) in Munich.
The federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe has accused him of acting as a secret service agent. Above all, the Russian secret service wanted to get information about the European launch vehicle Ariane.
Until his arrest on June 18, 2021, the then 29-year-old Russian had worked as a research assistant for a scientific and technical chair at the University of Augsburg.
Federal Prosecutor’s Office: Regular face-to-face meetings
According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the Russian foreign intelligence service SWR is said to have contacted the accused by autumn 2019 at the latest. “The intelligence service’s interest in investigating lay in particular in the various stages of development of the European launch vehicle Ariane and the suspect’s materials research,” said the federal prosecutor’s office on the indictment in January.
From the end of November 2019 there were regular personal meetings between the accused and a Russian command officer. The young man passed on information on research projects in the field of aerospace technology, in particular on the various Ariane development stages. For this he received a total of 2500 euros.
When the man was arrested in June last year, the federal prosecutor spoke of three meetings. At least at two of these meetings, the scientist passed on information “from the domain of the university” in exchange for cash.
Espionage cases rarely end up in court. According to the Bavarian Ministry of Justice, in the years 2016 to 2020 only one suspect was convicted in the area of classic espionage (in contrast to industrial espionage) in the Free State – and that was in 2018. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office, too, which dealt with outstanding cases in courts all over Germany charges counts for little more than a handful of indictments over the past several years. dpa
