A Russian diplomat with suspected links to the FSB counterintelligence service has been found dead after falling from a window in the Russian embassy in Berlin, say reports.
The embassy described the 35 year old man’s death as a “tragic accident”.
Berlin police discovered a lifeless body on the pavement in front of an embassy building in Berlin on October 19 at around 7:20 a.m, say reports.
Resuscitation attempts by rescue workers were unsuccessful.
Today is the first news of the incident which is aid to involve an undercover FSB agent working under diplomatic cover in Germany.
A Russian opposition newspaper gave the name of the diplomat as Kirill Zhalo, and said his father is a high-powered FSB general.
The German Foreign Ministry is aware of the death of an employee of the Russian Embassy in Berlin, but has declined to comment for privacy reasons, said a Russian report.
The man reportedly fell from an upper floor of the embassy complex on Behrenstrasse.
Sputnik state-run news agency citing Der Spiegelsaid he had fallen from a building housing the consular section.
According to an official list of diplomats, the man was accredited as a second embassy secretary, and has been in Berlin since summer 2019.
The German security authorities, however, saw him as a disguised employee of the Russian domestic secret service FSB .
Due to diplomatic status an investigation or autopsy was not possible in Germany, and Russia reportedly repatriated the body next day.
The father of the diplomat Lieutenant General Alexei Zhalo is reportedly linked to secret services operations against opposition figures and journalists in Russia, including Vladimir Putin foe Alexei Navalny, now jailed, reported opposition media outlet The Insider.
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Navalny had been poisoned in Russia in an incident the West blamed on Russian secret services.
The father is also on a Kremlin council protecting the Russian constitution.
Earlier Kirill Zhalo worked as a diplomat in Vienna.
The German authorities were unable to determine if the diplomat was dead before his fall, or if the fall caused his death.
