MUNICH: Ilnur Nagaev, the Russian scientist accused of spying for Moscow while working at a German university denied the charges at the opening of his trial Thursday, saying recent months had been “a horror”.

Ilnur Nagaev is accused of having shared information about Europe’s Ariane space rocket programme with Russia’s foreign intelligence service SVR.

He allegedly received 2,500 euros ($2,800) in cash in exchange, according to prosecutors.

But addressing the Munich court at the opening of his trial, Nagaev said he had “never heard of and did not know about the existence” of the SVR.

“No-one asked me if I would like to work for a secret organisation,” Nagaev told the court.
“If someone had asked, I would have said no immediately.”

Prosecutors allege that Nagaev was contacted by the SVR in the autumn of 2019 at the latest.

After agreeing to cooperate, he allegedly “passed on information on research projects in the field of aerospace technology, in particular the various development stages of the European launcher Ariane”.

At the time of his arrest last year, he was working at the University of Augsburg, a Bavarian town that hosts several key suppliers to the European Space Agency’s Ariane programme.

Nagaev is the latest in a string of alleged Russian spies uncovered on German soil.

The case comes amid the worst tensions between Moscow and the West since the Cold War, centred on President Vladimir Putin’s troop build-up at the border with Ukraine.

It reportedly led to the expulsion of a diplomat from Russia’s consulate in Munich, after two other members of embassy staff were declared persona non grata over the 2019 assassination – allegedly ordered by Moscow – of a former Chechen commander in a Berlin park.

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