Germany's Federal Foreign Intelligence Service (BND) would have gladly given up this gift a few days before Christmas last year: "Arrest on suspicion of treason" - was the title of the press release sent by the federal state prosecutor in Karlsruhe on 22 December.
Namely, the day before, Karsten L, an officer of the secret service of the BND, was arrested. The accusation reads: "In 2022, he forwarded to a Russian intelligence service information that he obtained during the performance of his professional activities." The report also caused great concern due to the fact that on February 24 of the same year, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an order to attack neighboring Ukraine, thus violating international law.
The BND man probably had accomplices
Almost a year after his arrest, the accused will have to answer before the Court of Appeal in Berlin from this Wednesday, December 13, 2023. This also applies to his alleged accomplice, businessman Artur E., who was arrested in January 2023. It is alleged that the two, together with an entrepreneur in Russia, provided sensitive information to Russia's FSB domestic secret service.
According to the federal prosecutor, the investigation was conducted in close cooperation with the BND and with the support of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The defendants are accused of having committed "especially grave" treason. The indictment refers to nine BND documents. It is a project for the collection of technical information.
Secret information from the BND computer
It is alleged that Karsten L. printed top secret material on his computer at the Berlin BND headquarters at the Pulah location in September and October 2022, or photographed it on the computer screen. Artur E. then took it to Moscow and handed it over to the Russian secret service.
The indictment states the following details: “During a meeting in Moscow in September 2022, an FSB officer gave Artur E. a list of issues of particular interest to the secret service. To answer them, Karsten L. again used information from the database of the German BND. Artur E. forwarded the answers to the FSB at the October 2022 meeting."
A danger to Germany's external security?
The disclosed BND information was actually a state secret. Their betrayal led to the "danger of particularly serious damage to the external security of the Federal Republic of Germany". It is stated that Karsten L. received 450.000 euros from the Russian secret service, and Artur E. at least 400.000 euros.
However, BND president Bruno Kal believes that the actual damage is less than initially feared. The amount of information that reached Moscow and its usability was "insignificant", he told the Berlin-based Tagespiegel. BND was "lucky in an accident", Kal emphasized.
Bag check
Because of the espionage case, which happened only a few months after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine, BND employees have to reckon with bag checks. Since then, "we have been asking our employees to show us the contents of their bags," explained the BND president, hoping that his colleagues would understand.
But how he actually assessed the danger of the overall situation could be heard in the German Bundestag in October 2023: "Our security-political situation is in a state of upheaval," Kahl said at a public hearing before the Parliamentary Control Committee for Intelligence Services (PKGr). The international order is being questioned more and more aggressively."
BND is changing its strategy
War returned to Europe as a means of pursuing interests. BND must strategically take new developments into account: in fulfilling its tasks, defining itself, future planning and organization. That's how Kal described his security agency's change of course.
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