In Germany, Bundeswehr Employee Accused Of Spying For Russia

He had access to secret projects in the field of electronic warfare.

German citizen Thomas H. is accused of working for Russian intelligence and disclosing official secrets, the German Prosecutor General's Office reported.

The accused served in the Bundeswehr's Federal Office for Armaments, Information Technology and Applications, which, among other things, deals with the procurement of electronic warfare systems. The department suspects that he contacted the Russian embassies in Bonn and Berlin several times with a proposal for cooperation. Once, he passed on information received during his service to Russian intelligence, the report said.

Thomas H. was detained last August.

As Spiegel found out, he had access to classified data concerning German army projects in the field of electronic warfare — this access is granted only after passing a special check.

German authorities believe he acted for personal reasons, out of frustration with his job and perhaps to increase his own importance. As Spiegel noted, such employees are the best informants for foreign intelligence services because they are easy to manipulate.

In January, it became known that, against the backdrop of foreign intelligence activity, a functioning pneumatic mail system was left in the office of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz; this decision was made by the head of government himself. About a thousand items pass through pneumatic mail pipes every month. “These are usually urgent messages that cannot be sent electronically or via courier service, for example because they are confidential or must be signed in the original,” explained the source to the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ).

As Charter97.org reported earlier, in 2019, prosecutors charged former Bundeswehr adviser Abdul Hamid S. with spying for Iranian intelligence.