An employee of the Russian Consulate General in Munich, whom Berlin declared persona non grata in the summer of 2021, left Germany. This was stated by a representative of the German Foreign Ministry, RIA Novosti reports.

The German publication Der Spiegel wrote that Germany had expelled a spy who allegedly worked under diplomatic cover at the Russian consulate in Munich. According to media reports, the accredited diplomat was allegedly an employee of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and acted as an agent working with the Russian academician.

An employee of the diplomatic department, whose full name was not disclosed, was in custody. He was detained during an investigation into the Russian Ilnur N., who worked at the natural science department of one of the universities in Germany.

“We confirm that in the summer of 2021, an employee of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Munich was declared persona non grata and was required to leave the country,” a spokeswoman for the German ministry said in response to a request to comment on Spiegel’s report about the expulsion of the diplomat.

Earlier, Germany declared two Russian diplomats of the Russian Embassy in Berlin persona non grata after the verdict in the case of the murder of Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili. In response, Moscow decided to declare two diplomatic employees of the German Embassy in Russia persona non grata.

At the same time, in December, Russian Ambassador to Berlin Sergei Nechaev said that Russia was leaving "doors open" for interaction with the new leadership of Germany, despite Berlin's political decision to expel Russian diplomats. He noted that the Russian side considers the verdict in the case of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, in which Russian state structures are called involved in the murder, a biased, politically motivated decision that seriously aggravates the already difficult Russian-German relations.

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