Suspected spy is tip of pro-Russian iceberg
An ex-German foreign intelligence official known as Carsten L has been charged with high treason for allegedly passing classified information to Russia. Prosecutors say he was paid €400,000 to monitor overseas phone and internet communications. His alleged accomplice, a Russia-born German diamond trader named as Arthur E, was also arrested and charged with handing intelligence to Russia’s FSB in Moscow. Both men could face life sentences if found guilty. In a separate case last month, a German government official was arrested and accused of passing secret information on military equipment and information technology to Russian diplomatic facilities in Germany. Last October, Germany’s cybersecurity chief, Arne Schönbohm, was fired for alleged links with Russian intelligence services. Germany has meanwhile expelled dozens of Russian diplomats for espionage, and a Russian man living in Germany who recently threw a Ukrainian boy off a bridge for daring to speak Ukrainian is wanted by German police.
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