A former Bundeswehr captain was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for spying for Russia by providing sensitive military information from May 2023 onward.

The Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf sentenced a 54-year-old former Bundeswehr captain to three and a half years imprisonment for spying for Russia. The officer voluntarily passed military-sensitive information from his role at the Bundeswehr Procurement Office in Koblenz to the Russian General Consulate in Bonn and the Russian Embassy in Berlin starting May 2023. He was arrested by German Federal Criminal Police on August 9, 2023, and remained in pretrial detention since. The accused confessed at trial, citing fear of nuclear escalation in the Ukraine conflict and depression caused by chronic overwork that impaired his rational thinking. His defense highlighted four days of betrayal marking a total breakdown in judgment. The sentence was for secret service agent activity and violation of official secrecy. If he had leaked state secrets, life imprisonment would have been possible.