Germany declares Russian diplomat persona non grata over suspicions of espionage – Der Spiegel

An employee of the Russian consulate in Munich has been declared persona non grata for espionage. About it writes The mirror.

According to the publication, the accredited diplomat was an officer in the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service and acted as a liaison agent for the Russian academic, whose arrest on charges of espionage was announced the day before.

Der Spiegel reports that the expulsion took place shortly after the arrest in the summer of 2021 of Ilnur N., a researcher at the University of Augsburg, whom prosecutors suspect of passing information to the SVR about the European Ariane space launch vehicle.

According to the materials of the case, 29-year-old Ilnur N. worked as a researcher at the department of natural sciences at one of the universities in Germany. The prosecutor’s office did not say which university the defendant worked at, however, according to the dpa agency, it was the University of Augsburg.

According to the investigation, from October 2020 to June 2021, Ilnur N. met at least three times with a representative of one of the Russian special services. During at least two of these meetings, he provided Russian intelligence with inside information relating to his work at the university in exchange for a monetary reward. Now he is accused under the article on illegal undercover activity. He faces up to five years in prison.