Alleged espionage for the BND
German convicted in Russia – family begs for help
6/11/2023 3:33 p.m
His friends are sounding the alarm: the situation of the German-Russian Dieter Woronin is “hopeless,” they write to the Foreign Office. Voronin was arrested in Russia in 2021 for alleged espionage and convicted in March of this year. Moscow itself refuses consular support.
Friends and family of a German sentenced to 13 years in prison for alleged espionage for the BND have asked the German government for help. Dieter Woronin’s situation is “hopeless,” write friends of the 43-year-old German from Russia in a letter to the Foreign Office, which “Spiegel” has seen. “If he is not helped, he will spend the next 13 years in prison.”
Voronin was arrested in February 2021 on allegations of espionage. After a closed trial, he was convicted in March 2023. A Moscow court ruled that he had passed on Russian state secrets to the BND.
After Voronin is said to have initially confessed during interrogations, he did not repeat this confession in court. “Dieter never worked for the BND,” says Voronin’s fiancee Yevgeniya Kozmenko in “Spiegel”. According to information from the magazine, the German intelligence service has also informed the federal government that Voronin is not a BND man.
Voronin’s sister Eva has asked the German ambassador in Moscow, Géza von Geyr, to advocate for her brother’s release. Even now, in the Lefortowo remand prison, his situation is difficult. Neither his family nor his fiancé are allowed to visit him. In the “colony in Siberia, things are guaranteed to get worse,” she wrote.
The German embassy has repeatedly requested access to Voronin in order to at least offer him consular support. The Russian side refused every time. Voronin has both German and Russian citizenship.