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 he might have had access to information from allied services.
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On Thursday, the federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe announced the arrest the day before in Berlin of Carsten L., an agent of the federal intelligence services (BND), suspected of having transmitted sensitive information to Moscow.
Questioned by the German television channels RTL and NTV, the Minister of the Economy and German Vice-Chancellor, Robert Habeck, qualified this affair as “particularly worrying”, at a time when the Russian military offensive in Ukraine continues. February 24.
Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said on Twitter that the case showed “how much you have 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, expressed his concern regarding the negative consequences that this case might have concerning the cooperation of the BND with the secret services. western partners.
“If information from the BND has really been able to reach Russia, it will make our collaboration with our partners enormously more difficult,” Kubicki told the German daily Handelsblatt.
Citing information from security service sources in Berlin, the Focus Online media 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 might relate to information from eavesdropping from other secret services, including the US NSA and Britain’s GCHQ.
The double agent “provided information collected as part of his work to a Russian intelligence service in 2022”, assured the prosecution.
Every detail made public in this affair “represents an advantage for (Russia), in its intention to harm Germany”, reacted Thursday the president of the BND, Bruno Kahl.
