Are Lukashenka’s German partners Russian agents?

German mass media write that Russian spies held senior positions in the entourage of Premiere of Germany's federal state of Brandenburg.

The chancellery of Brandenburg Premier in Potsdam does not comment the scandalous articles in any way, “Radio Svaboda” informs.

As German mass media report, Matthias Platzeck who is well-known in Belarus in connection with numerous visits to Minsk as a member of high governmental delegations from Brandenburg, has taken a vacation. According to informational sources, though he is not suspected of espionage, he is under the hard pressure of this situation.

By the way, it is not the first case when Russian secret services frame a high-ranking governmental civil servant. Five years ago Russian Embassy in Berlin awarded Matthias Platzeck with “Peter the Great” order. However the joy of the official was overclouded by the shocking article in “Berliner Morgenpost”. It was informed that Russian secret services stand behind the organisation which gives such awards. With a reference to sources in German intelligence it was reported that through Moscow academy created in 1999 on initiative of Vladimir Putin, a real espionage network started its activities on the territory of Germany. Former Stasi agents were involved in its work.

As for today’s scandal related to Russian spy trace in the chancellery of Platzeck, the grounds for it according German mass media is a report of state’s criminal affairs department in Potsdam. The report in particular states that a few years ago the internal federal intelligence (the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, BFV) interrogated in a hotel of Berlin’s airport Tegel two investigators from Belarus and Russia sent to the German Commissariat for measures to combat organized crime. During interrogation the Belarusian and Russian citizens admitted that they are officers of Russian GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate). The agents allegedly agreed to cooperate with investigation, and told some relevant information. However, all the details which concerned these two persons were then carefully classified by the German side.

As informed by German “Focus”, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution also detected that a woman from Platzeck’s office had contacts with representatives of Russian secret services who worked in the Embassy in Berlin. She may have been recruited by the Russian KGB while studying in Moscow. As DPA informs, Platzeck’s chancellery’s representatives said they didn’t know who was meant by that, and that they would start their own investigation.

German mass media also inform about other alleged spied in Platzeck’s office. One of them is a high-ranking governmental civil servant, who according to files in the Czech interior ministry had close contact to the Cold War-era Slovakian secret service (StB). The German secret service bugged and watched him for five months, which had been sanctioned by the internal German intelligence, during which time he met with a Russian secret agent handler. He has been given different work within the Brandenburg state administration.

Meanwhile, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution denies comments on the information of German mass media, DPA informs.

“We do not give comments on such reports on principle,” said an anonymous representative of this agency. Platzeck’s chancellery does not comment on the news as well.