Thread by @michaeldweiss

Exclusive: A controversial aide to Bundestag deputy Eugen Schmidt, of Germany's far-right AfD party, is an agent of Russian intelligence. Oh, and his handler raps! theins.press/en/politics/26…

As @InsiderEng and our partner @derspiegel reported in August, Vladimir Sergienko, 52, a Lviv-born German parliamentary aide, had been communicating with a certain suspected FSB operative named "Alexei." Alexei, we've discovered, is Ilya Vechtomov, 36ish, an officer of the FSB.

Vechtomov is attached to the Ninth Division of Operational Information Department (DOI) of the FSB Fifth Service, the unit targeting Ukraine. (Earlier this week, @InsiderEng exposed Latvian MEP Tatiana Zdanoka as an agent of the Fifth Service: ) theins.press/en/politics/26…

But Vechtomov, Sergienko's case officer, isn't any old spy. He's a self-promoting Russian hip hop star who performs under the stage name, "Fox D’Liss" as part of a trio called OSII. (I'm not making this up, I swear.)

(.@christogrozev only just discovered this c.v. item at midnight last night, after this story had been put to bed. Needless to say, we woke it back up.)

Here is OSII rapping at a Moscow festival just weeks before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Watch out, Ben Shapiro!

Offstage, Vechtomov is no less energetic. Under his tasking, Sergienko has tried to slow or stop the delivery of Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv. The plan was to sue the German government for not consulting the Bundestag on security assistance.

Sergienko wanted $93,000 from Vechtomov for the legal fees, all to be paid to white-shoe German law firms. In fact, the AfD faction filed a suit on exactly these grounds, but extended the complaint well beyond the Leos.

Pretty much all weapons systems and military aid is covered. Even wool blankets and sleeping bags, the faction argued, could not be sent without Bundestag approval.

(The Ukrainian government has blamed delays in delivery of vital kit for the late start of its underwhelming counteroffensive last year.)

Sergienko and Vechtomov also chatted about funneling Russian money to dodgy NGOs in Germany. “Can we transfer money to a German NGO? I would need the bank details,” Vechtomov messaged Sergienko on April 14, 2023.

Sergienko responded: “Yes, we can transfer to a German NGO. I will check with the auditor.” Sergienko even drafted a letter on behalf of several AfD politicos and one such NGO, Vadar, to Pope Francis about the alleged "persecution" of Christians in Ukraine.

(Sergineko's boss, Eugen Schmidt, is on the board of Vadar.) The aide kindly shared the draft missive with Vechtomov in advance of sending it on to the Vatican.

More recently, Sergienko railed against arming Ukraine at a "Peace with Russia" rally sponsored by the German magazine Compact in Magdeburg. He received a rapturous response.

Of course, private communiques with "Alexei" weren't Sergienko's only eyebrow-raising activities. Last April he was caught traveling to and from Russia with 9,000 euros in cash, just under the limit of 10,000 euros that must be declared at German customs.

Sergienko is now facing the revocation of his German citizenship because he lied on his naturalization form, claiming he'd only had Ukrainian citizenship, which he renounced. (Until last month, Germany did not allow dual citizenship.)

In fact, he has a Russian passport, issued in 2022. It was discovered with the cash during a security check in Hamburg upon his return from the Motherland.

As of now, Sergienko has had his unrestricted to the Bundestag access temporarily suspended. He must enter parliamentary grounds under escort now. (It's pretty remarkable he can even do that.)

Sergienko insists to us he's innocent. "The said connections to Russia are fiction and the said contact person, Ilya Vechtomov, does not exist for me," he told @derspiegel.

Even worse: these annoying press inquiries are distracting him from his important new book project on “preventing the Third World War.” /END

.@derspiegel’s story: spiegel.de/politik/deutsc…

@derspiegel Looks like Vechtomov’s rapping is now Top Secret too. Someone just set the YouTube channel to “private.”