Assistant to MP in German Bundestag works for FSB
Vladimir Sergienko, a Russian political strategist of Ukrainian origin who works as an assistant to a Bundestag MP from the Alternative for Germany party named Eugen Schmidt (of Kazakh origin) has been recruited by the FSB’s Fifth Service and has close ties to one of its employees.
Source: investigation by The Insider and Der Spiegel
Details: Sergienko's contacts with a specific person in Moscow were reported in publications as early as the summer of 2023. So far, journalists have obtained correspondence from the German MP’s assistant on social media and determined this person's contact information.
He is FSB Colonel Ilya Vechtomov. Vechtomov works for the Ninth Directorate of the Fifth Service of the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service), which is responsible for Ukraine. He also has a passport under the name of Ilya Vekshin, which he has used to travel to Türkiye and Belarus to meet with recruited Ukrainian citizens. Vechtomov previously rapped as part of the OSIII crew under the rapper name Fox.
According to the correspondence, Sergienko reported his actions to the Moscow handler, agreed on the next steps, and received funding from him. Among other things, Sergienko ensured that the AfG parliamentary faction filed a complaint with the German Federal Constitutional Court to halt the supply of tanks to Ukraine.
Sergienko collaborated with many other parliamentarians, including Ulrich Oehme, an AfD politician and part-time president of the Association for the Protection of Russian Speakers in Germany, who was brought to Sochi on 6 June 2023, according to The Insider. The trip was not publicised. A few months prior, Oehme, under Sergienko's strict supervision, wrote a letter to the Pope, asking him to pay attention to the "persecution of Christians in Ukraine." Sergienko and his Moscow handler agreed on a Russian draft of this letter before sending it on 12 April 2023, and it was published on 14 April.
Furthermore, Sergienko arranged for Professor Harald Weyel, a member of the Bundestag, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and the Federal Presidium of the AfD, to make a speech at a PACE session, in which he stated that the Kyiv authorities were openly persecuting Ukrainian Orthodox Church parishioners (of the Moscow Patriarchate). Kremlin-aligned media immediately spread the statement.
The same handler who coordinated these texts also gave Sergienko money. For example, Sergienko wrote to him about how much it would cost to file the complaint with the court: "Probably €25,000 per month (approximately two to three months for consideration, the same amount of time for legal support, i.e.the injunction on supplies). The bill will be issued by a prestigious law firm that includes several specialised lawyers. Additional curatorial expenses for handling and representation (around €10,000). The full names of the colleagues involved (i.e. Bundestag members – ed.) will be provided."
Sergienko, in a statement to Der Spiegel, denied all of the allegations, calling them baseless and false. He claims he is unfamiliar with Vechtomov and that all of his ties to Russia are fictitious.
According to the newspaper, the German authorities are now attempting to strip Sergienko of his German citizenship, which he obtained in November 2022. He has also been temporarily barred from entering the Bundestag and is unable to move freely around the parliament building.
Background:
Sergienko first came to the media’s attention in August 2023, when it was revealed that he discussed the disruption of Germany's military assistance to Ukraine with an unknown handler in Moscow.
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