A Russian diplomat found dead in the street in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin

(CNN) – Authorities in Germany believe a Russian diplomat found dead on the street outside the Russian embassy in Berlin last month was a secret agent of a Russian intelligence service, the magazine reported Friday. Der Spiegel.

The body of the 35-year-old diplomat was found on the morning of October 19. He apparently fell from an upper floor of the Russian embassy building in the German capital, although it is unclear why he fell or what caused his death, Der Spiegel reported.

Der Spiegel and the research site Bellingcat reported that the dead diplomat had been accredited as second secretary at the Russian embassy in Berlin since 2019, but German security officials believe he was an undercover officer for Russia’s FSB, the internal security and counterintelligence service, and that he was related with a high-ranking FSB officer.

In the past, the FSB was linked by Western intelligence services to the death of a Georgian exile, shot to death in a Berlin park in 2019, Der Spiegel and Bellingcat reported. The Kremlin has denied any link between the assassination and the Russian state.

No autopsy for diplomat found dead

The Russian embassy in Germany did not agree to an autopsy on the diplomat, and his diplomatic immunity prevented the German prosecutor’s office from carrying out an investigation, Der Spiegel reported on Friday.

Russian and German authorities on Friday acknowledged the death of the diplomat following the Der Spiegel report.

“On October 19, 2021, there was a tragic accident with a Russian diplomat,” the Russian embassy said in a statement. “All formalities related to the dispatch of the diplomat’s corps to his homeland were promptly resolved with the competent German police and medical authorities in accordance with current practice.”

“We consider that the speculations that have appeared in various Western media in the context of this tragic incident are absolutely incorrect.”

“No further details will be revealed.”

A spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry told CNN that the government was aware of the death of the diplomat, but that, for “reasons of personal protection of the affected people and their families, no further details will be revealed at this time. “

The diplomat’s death comes nearly a year after an investigation into CNN and Bellingcat revealed that an FSB toxin team of six to ten agents followed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny for more than three years before he was poisoned in August 2020 with the deadly nerve agent Novichok.

One of the FSB agents was later tricked into telling Navalny over the phone that the Novichok had been planted in his boxer shorts, a detail that came to light when Navalny posed as a member of Russia’s National Security Council. and called the agent to pressure him and ask for details of the operation, as revealed exclusively in another investigation by CNN-Bellingcat.