Sleeper agents planted during Cold War are sentenced in Germany

Special to WorldTribune.com

By Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com

In a case reminiscent of the Cold War era, a German court near Stuttgart on July 2 sentenced two Russian agents, planted in West Germany during the 1980s and active until their arrest in October 2011.

Accused Russian spies with the aliases Andreas and Heidrun Anschlag appear in court in Stuttgart, Germany. (Their identities were obscured at the request of the court.)  /Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images Europe
Accused Russian spies with the aliases Andreas and Heidrun Anschlag appear in court in Stuttgart, Germany. (Their identities were obscured at the request of the court.) /Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images Europe

Andreas Anschlag, 54, and his wife Heidrun, 48, were planted by the KGB in 1988 in what was then West Germany. Their mission was to recruit Western diplomats and defense officials to spy for the Soviet Union.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1992, the couple continued their espionage activities for Russian intelligence. One of their star recruits was the Dutch diplomat Raymond Poeteray who passed classified NATO plans and documents to the Anschlags who then passed them on to Moscow through secret radio and other means.

The unraveling of the Anna Chapman spy ring in New York City revealed the complicated espionage activities of various Russian agents in the West, including those by the Anschlags.

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