The Higher Regional Court in Munich Wednesday sentenced a Russian researcher working at the Bavarian University of Augsburg, convicting him of espionage and sharing classified information with Moscow.
The court gave the man, referred to as Ilnur N., a one-year suspended sentence. Ilnur N. was a research assistant for a scientific and technical professor at the university who worked on the Ariane space rocket program.
Germany’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office stated that Ilnur N. was recruited in the fall of 2019 by the SVR, Russia’s main intelligence service agency. The office said that the man passed along information regarding research projects in the field of aerospace technology, specifically the various development stages of the Ariane space launcher. The SVR’s interest was in investigating the progress the space program has undergone and the materials research Ilnur N. was working on while employed by the university.
Starting from November 2019, Ilnur N. regularly met with personal management within the program, as well as with the senior officer of the SVR located in Germany. He consistently passed along information on research projects, along with detailed reports containing other projects currently existing in the field of aerospace technology. After Ilnur N. was arrested in June of 2021, prosecutors revealed that he had received a total of $2,820 for his correspondence with the Russian spy agency.
In the Munich state court, the man claimed that someone who credited themselves as a vice consul contacted him saying they worked for a Russian bank and needed information on aerospace projects for private investment opportunities. Ilnur N. stated that he suspected the man worked for foreign intelligence in February of last year, but continued to supply him with information until April. He further claimed that he was not a spy nor a foreign agent and that he had only passed along information to a Russian consulate that was publicly accessible.
The court in Berlin stated that they handed down the sentence given the defendant was unlikely to reoffend. The court also considered his cooperation with investigators and acknowledged that his actions did not do much damage to Germany or to the space project itself.
