Germany targeted by Russian commercial spies –official

Russian spies are targeting the German energy sector to help Russian firms gain commercial advantages, the head of Germany's domestic counter-espionage unit, Burkhard Even said Sunday.

"The Russian intelligence services, keeping up with their government's changing information needs, have intensified efforts in recent years to investigate German firms illegally," Even told Die Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

The director of Counter-Intelligence at the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, said the espionage was aimed mostly at information about alternative and renewable energy and efforts to increase efficiency. European energy interests, diversification plans, and Germany's economic situation were also targets.

Last month Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble noted, when presenting his ministry's 2008 security report, that Russia and China were stepping up espionage efforts and Internet attacks on German companies.

Last year a German court convicted a former employee of European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company EADS for selling information about civilian helicopters to Russian intelligence.

Moscow's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), smaller than its military intelligence service but successor to part of the Soviet KGB, is the body which covers economic matters, say analysts.

The head of the unit, Mikhail Fradkov, is a former Prime Minister and economics expert, appointed by former President Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB spy during the Cold War.

Even said the targets of espionage were increasing in number and that all companies should tighten up security.

"Not only big firms are affected, but also increasingly small and middle-sized companies. We therefore call on leaders of firms to step up protection against industrial espionage," he said.