The barbecue that exposed Germany’s spy problem

After decades of restraint, Berlin wants its intelligence service to recruit spies, sabotage enemies and take risks again.

Dear Reader,

A few months before Russia invaded Ukraine, a barbecue was taking place on the grounds of a local football club in the small Bavarian town of Weilheim.

Among the guests was Carsten L., a man in his fifties who coached one of the club’s youth teams. To the other coaches he was simply a soldier whose regular absences from the quiet commuter town were due to deployments in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

But there was one man at the barbecue who knew better.

Arthur E., a charismatic Munich businessman with Russian roots, knew that Carsten was not merely a soldier. He was one of the senior officials at the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence service.

Arthur struck up a conversation. A friendship followed.

But it was a friendship with a purpose.

Arthur was working on behalf of the Russian state. His task was to persuade Carsten to pass him classified information in exchange for money.

Early the following year, after Russian troops rolled across the Ukrainian borde…