A German intelligence officer arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia had access to a wealth of top-secret information about the war in Ukraine, as well as knowledge of how it was collected by the US and its allies, Western officials say, Wall Street reports. Magazine.

The prosecutor’s office is trying to determine whether the information has already been passed on to Moscow. If so, it could alert Russia to its own vulnerability and provide Western intelligence-gathering methods and capabilities.

Potential damage from the war in Ukraine causes “serious concern”

American and British officials said they were trying to determine the extent of the potential damage from the war in Ukraine. A US official said the case was of “grave concern”.

The suspect, identified by German prosecutors as Karsten L., worked for the Federal Intelligence Service’s intelligence unit, which conducts electronic surveillance and works with the US National Security Agency and Britain’s government communications headquarters.

The prosecutor’s office reported that the man was detained on suspicion of treason while the investigation is ongoing.

Germany’s intelligence agency, known as the BND, confirmed the arrest but declined to comment further, citing national security risks. The US National Security Agency (NSA) and Britain’s Government Communications Center (GCHQ) declined to comment.

The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) declined to comment.

Germany is not a member of the so-called “Five Eyes” intelligence community of the US, Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand, but Berlin receives confidential information from these countries, in particular, related to the war in Ukraine, from officials of the three countries.

Karsten L. worked with intelligence related to Russia’s war in Ukraine, including access to material collected by German military satellites, German officials said.

His department also handled classified information from Russia and Ukraine obtained by other Western spy agencies through access to electronic devices, interception of telecommunications and satellite imagery.

The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), which has a staff of 6,500 and is based on a heavily guarded campus in central Berlin, has since the start of the war focused its attention on gathering and analyzing intelligence in Russia and Ukraine and is traditionally also active in the Balkans. , Middle East and Africa.

The Kremlin’s penetration of the BND is the latest evidence of Moscow’s aggressive tactics in Europe, where Russia has been accused of assassinating political opponents, sabotaging infrastructure and trying to steal industrial secrets.

Earlier this year, the BND received information about the alleged spy from allied intelligence, German officials said. After an internal investigation, the case was turned over to federal prosecutors, who ordered the man’s arrest last week.

This is perhaps the worst example of Russian infiltration of German intelligence services since 1961, a blow to European security

The case may be the worst example of Russian intrusion into Germany’s intelligence services since 1961, when a BND employee spying for the Soviet Union exposed a network of 100 CIA spies, said Erich Schmidt-Eenbohm, who has written several books about the BND.

Roderich Kiesewetter, an opposition lawmaker and vice-chairman of the parliamentary committee that oversees Germany’s intelligence services, said the case could be a major blow to European security.

He called on Germany to set up a commission of inquiry to find out how many politicians and high-ranking government officials may have been compromised by Russia and China, and to consider how to reduce Germany’s dependence on both countries.

Expulsion of Russian diplomats on charges of espionage

According to Kiesewetter and other experts, Germany scaled back its counterintelligence efforts in the early 2000s, leaving itself vulnerable to Russian operations.

However, senior German intelligence officials said the war in Ukraine marked a “paradigm shift” in German politics.

Berlin launched a crackdown on Russian espionage this year following Moscow’s attack on Ukraine. The heads of Europe’s internal security agencies met in early April in Paris to develop a joint strategy to combat Russian espionage. After the meeting, European governments expelled about 600 Russian officials from their countries, including 40 by Germany.

Including Romaniaexpelled 10 Russian diplomats, “considering that their activities and actions contradict the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”

The decision was “the most significant strategic blow to Russian intelligence in recent European history,” said Ken McCallum, the head of Britain’s MI5 agency, in November.

Since then, Russia has tried to compensate for the damage by beefing up so-called deep-cover agents and using unofficial collaborators, as well as recruiting government officials, businessmen, academics and others as spies, according to several Western officials.

A German spy who allegedly collected information for Russia would not have received any money

The investigation into the case of Karsten L. found no evidence that he received payments from contacts. The investigation is investigating whether he was blackmailed or guided by ideological beliefs, people familiar with the investigation said.

According to several German officials, Russian groups, including criminal groups hired by the Kremlin, have used cyber attacks to target critical German infrastructure this year, targeting utilities, airports and medical facilities.

According to counterintelligence officials, Moscow has also turned to industrial espionage to try to compensate for the loss of access to Western technology due to sanctions, particularly in the aerospace, semiconductor and basic research industries.

German officials suspect Russia of involvement in several sophisticated acts of sabotage, such as the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline and the October rail attack that temporarily halted all rail traffic in the country’s north.

Russia denies its involvement.