Out of admiration for Putin, a 58-year-old serves as a spy for the Russians. However, he falls into a trap set by German authorities and is arrested. A London court now sentences him to more than 13 years in prison.
A former security guard at the British embassy in Berlin has been sentenced to 13 years and two months in prison for spying for Russia. The 58-year-old Briton had passed a "significant amount" of sensitive information to a contact at the nearby Russian embassy for years, a London court ruled. He should have been aware that such information in the wrong hands could harm Britain and threaten other embassy staff.
The judge at the Old Bailey Criminal Court said in the verdict that the spy now convicted had developed an "anti-British" attitude. In conversations with colleagues, he said he was more "sympathetic to Russia, especially to President (Vladimir) Putin". In return for the information, the man received large sums of money.
Security services had set a trap for him. German authorities arrested him in August 2021 and later extradited him to the UK.
The convict pleaded guilty to eight charges in court in November. His motivation was that he wanted to cause "difficulties and embarrassment" for the embassy. He acted purely out of resentment against his employer and received no money. However, the court did not believe that. The embassies of Russia and Great Britain are only a few hundred meters apart in Berlin.
