Bonn Reports ‘Biggest Blow’ at Soviet Spying

In a move hailed as “the biggest blow to the Soviet secret service” in the history of West Germany, officials announced Monday that they are holding six suspected Soviet spies after a massive search and arrest operation.

Federal prosecutor Kurt Rebmann, speaking at a news conference in Karlsruhe, said the roundup has made a “vast breach” in the Soviet spy network in West Germany. Some of the agents, he said, had been operating in West Germany for years, providing military and industrial secrets to the Soviets.

In a related development, Swiss authorities announced in Bern that they have apprehended on espionage charges a 40-year-old engineer living in Zurich. They said the man, whose name and nationality were not released, was taken into custody on the basis of information provided by West German authorities.

Spy Since 1971

One of those in custody in Germany, Vienna-born businessman Helmut Kolasch, 44, was said to have passed documents to Moscow since 1971, including material on the Tornado, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization jet fighter, and the new Jaeger 90, the Eurofighter being designed by the aircraft industries of four nations.

Also in custody were three engineers and two teachers, all of whom Rebmann said had been operating independently and were not part of a spy ring.

Four other people, including two physicians, were seized in the nationwide sweep but later were released, Rebmann said.

He said the arrests “were the biggest blow to the Soviet secret service since the establishment of the Federal Republic (West Germany)” 39 years ago.

The arrests, carried out over the past several days by the federal counterintelligence service and two state criminal departments, involved about 170 police and security agents, authorities said. A total of 33 homes and offices were searched.

Rebmann said that several of those arrested were immigrants from the Soviet Union and as ethnic Germans had been given West German citizenship.

He said the arrests were not connected with that of a government secretary, Elke Falk, who was apprehended last week on suspicion of spying for East Germany.

‘A Severe Blow’

In Bonn, Interior Minister Friedrich Zimmermann said the roundup had dealt “a severe blow to the Eastern Bloc secret services.” And, he said, it shows Moscow is still interested in industrial as well as political espionage.

The arrests were seen as a measure of the effective reform of West Germany’s counterintelligence service, which was set back severely in 1985 when Hans Joachim Tiedge, head of the department dealing with East German espionage, defected to East Berlin.

The new department head, Gerhard Boeden, told reporters in Karlsruhe that East European intelligence services had become more active in recent months.

Other sources reported that the Soviets often step up their intelligence activities during periods of detente with the West.

Rebmann promised that in the future emigrants from the Soviet Union will be subjected to stricter security checks when coming to West Germany.