The German Connection

Andreas Anschlag, accused of espionage in Germany on behalf of Russia, in trial (from El País).

This week the press published an appealing story whose attraction largely relied on a practice of international politics that was thought to be quite interred: East-West espionage. German authorities began to follow the trail of two people who claimed to be Andreas and Heidrun Anschlag, detained in 2011 and accused of being members of the Russian secret intelligence agencies working in Germany since 1988. Allegedly, they transmitted information to Moscow twice a week about the country they were in, the European Union, and NATO, for which they received around 100,000 euros a year. With this money, the investigation continues, they were able to maintain the façade of an engineer and his wife. They had fake South American passports which they used to originally enter the country. If found guilty, they face a 10-year long jail sentence.

Authorities are not yet certain about the exact context of the work of the Anschlags. Were they originally intended to have a long-term stay? Why did they remain in Germany after the fall of the USSR and the reunification? Had their purpose changed? Are they, or were they, part of a larger team of spies? Were they kept there because of bureaucratic inertia? What was the relevance of their activities to the government of Russia since 1988?

The interest in trying to answer those questions has increased because Germany proposed a prisoner exchange with Russia: the Anschlags for an infiltrated German agent also accused of espionage currently serving 20 years in a Russian prison. Purportedly, Putin himself said no. The freedom of the Anschlags and their more than twenty years of service was not worth the release of the German spy in captivity.

It can be argued that all countries have their own intelligence networks abroad. However, usually they rely on a set of formal and informal contacts articulated around the Embassies. With the end of the Cold War, the lack of validity of the argument that the mere existence of a country is a menace for the survival of another, and the diversification of sources, means of communication and information, it is somewhat surprising that the Russian government has maintained two spies in German territory and has let them alone during their judicial process. On the other hand, the, so to speak, de-democratization episodes in Russia through the centralization of power around Putin, along with this story of spies, add to the argument that for Russia the Cold War, in one way or another (even if just by not exchanging prisoners, assuming the Anschlags duties were not of prime importance), for internal or external purposes, is not yet over.