Berlin “on its guard” after the discovery of a double agent working for Russia
The discovery of a possible double agent working on behalf of Russia within the German secret service was considered very worrying on Friday by the German vice-chancellor, other elected officials worrying that this agent could have had access to information from allied services.
Thursday, December 22, the federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe had announced the arrest the day before, in Berlin, of Carsten L., an agent of the federal intelligence service (BND), suspected of having transmitted sensitive information to Moscow. Citing information from security service sources in Berlin, the media Focus Online said on Friday that the double agent discovered was a top-secret technical intelligence officer of the BND abroad.
As part of these functions, he had access to all information from the secret services of the BND’s Western partners, this German online media claims. This could relate to information from eavesdropping from other secret services, including the US NSA and Britain’s GCHQ. The double agent has “provided information collected in the course of his work to a Russian intelligence service in 2022”assured the prosecution.
Questioned by the German television channels RTL and NTV, the Minister for the Economy and German Vice-Chancellor, Robert Habeck, qualified this affair as “particularly worrying”as the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, launched on February 24, continues.
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann tweeted that the case showed “how much you had to be on your guard”. The vice-president of the liberal party FDP – one of the three parties of the German government coalition -, Wolfgang Kubicki, meanwhile expressed his concern about the negative consequences that this case could have for the cooperation of the BND with the secret services. western partners.
“If information from the BND could really reach Russia, it will make our collaboration with our partners much more difficult”Mr. Kubicki told the German daily Handelsblatt.