German prosecutors charge Russian man with espionage

BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors say they have charged a Russian man who worked at a German university with espionage for allegedly passing information on European rockets to Russian intelligence. The suspect was arrested on June 18. Until then, he worked as a research assistant for a science and technology professorship at a university in Bavaria. Prosecutors haven’t identified the university. Prosecutors said that the suspect was contacted by Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service by November 2019 at the latest and agreed to work for it. The intelligence service, they said, was particularly interested in the development of the European Ariane rocket, used for space launches.