Russian scientist in German university sentenced for spying

A court in southern Germany on Wednesday admitted a university scientist to a one-year suspended sentence for spying for the Russian secret service.

The presiding judge at the Higher Regional Court in Munich said the 30-year-old researcher from University of Augsburg “came to terms with the fact that he had done research for a Russian secret service.’’

However, the Russian doctoral student, Ilnur Nagaev had denied any intentional wrongdoing during trial, saying “I am not an agent’’.

But he admitted passing on publicly available information to an employee of the Russian Consulate General in Munich, who had since been revealed as an employee of the foreign intelligence service, the SVR.

The accused, however, said he knew nothing about the man’s activities.

He said that he could not have imagined that the Russian secret service would be interested in information that was publicly available anyway.