German police arrested him in the city of Koblenz in August and accused him of sharing photographs of munitions training systems and aircraft technology.The 54-year-old admitted to a Düsseldorf court on Monday to passing information to Russia, saying it was a "stupid idea" and that he regretted his actions.
Prosecutors said the man approached the Russian embassy in Berlin and the consulate in Bonn unprompted and "almost persistently offered himself to Russia".
In a closing statement, the man said he had contacted the embassy after becoming concerned about the risk of nuclear war driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
While prosecutors said the leaks had revealed sensitive military information, they noted that he had not disclosed state secrets, an act which would have attracted a much heavier lifetime sentence.
Since December, an employee for German domestic intelligence, Carsten L, has been on trial accused of passing on classified data to Russian agents.And in February 2023, a former security guard at the British embassy in Berlin was sentenced to 13 years in prison for passing on large amounts of sensitive information to the nearby Russian embassy.The affairs have sparked a debate about whether security measures in Germany are tight enough.
In a recent television interview, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said that Germany was a target for foreign powers.
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