Berlin Says Employee Of Russian Consulate General Expelled Back In Summer 2021

BERLIN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th January, 2022) The German Foreign Ministry confirmed on Friday that an employee of the Russian Consulate General in Munich was declared persona non grata and left the country, this happened in the summer of 2021, a spokeswoman for the ministry told RIA Novosti.

Earlier, the Spiegel newspaper wrote about the situation. According to the publication, this was connected with an espionage case involving a Russian Ilnur N., a researcher at a German university. Several days ago, he was charged in court.

"We confirm that in the summer of 2021, an employee of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Munich was declared persona non grata and was required to leave the country," the spokeswoman said in response to a request to confirm the Spiegel's report.

She did not specify for what reason the employee of the Consulate General had been declared persona non grata.

Earlier in the week, it became known that the German Federal prosecutor's office had brought charges against Ilnur N. in the case of espionage in favor of Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin knew nothing about the detention of people in Germany on charges of transferring secrets of the space program to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).