German federal prosecutors have charged Berlin businesswoman Ilona W., 57, with alleged intelligence-agent activity on behalf of Russia, around eight months after her arrest. According to the 74-page indictment, the German-Ukrainian woman is accused of carrying out activities for a foreign intelligence service. However, the initial suspicion that she had committed espionage in a particularly serious case has apparently not been substantiated.
Officials from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office arrested Ilona W. in Berlin on 21 January. At the same time, searches were conducted at the homes of two former employees of the Federal Ministry of Defence, with whom W. is alleged to have been in contact.
According to investigators, the PR entrepreneur had been supplying sensitive information to a contact at the Russian Embassy in Berlin since November 2023. German counter-intelligence authorities identified the man as an officer of Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU, who was operating under the cover of a deputy attaché. The alleged intelligence officer, Andrej M., was required to leave Germany at the beginning of the year.
The federal prosecution accuses Ilona W. of deliberately collecting information about participants in political gatherings in Germany. According to investigations, she is alleged to have gathered details about the “NATO-Talk” held at Berlin’s Hotel Adlon in November 2023 and the German-Ukrainian Economic Forum in Berlin in December 2025. At the latter event, Ilona W. was seated only a few metres behind German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Prosecutors also allege that, in February 2024, W. helped her suspected intelligence handler, Andrej M., gain access to a gathering of Bundeswehr reservists by using a false name. The allegation adds another dimension to the case, suggesting that her activities extended beyond collecting information at public political and diplomatic events.
Ilona W. was regarded in Berlin as highly active within political and diplomatic circles. Alongside her PR business, she ran an association dedicated to promoting international understanding and had appeared for years at receptions and events attended by ambassadors, senior diplomats and prominent politicians. The association’s board of trustees includes prominent business figures as well as former members of parliament from the SPD and CDU.
Her activities in these circles provided access to a broad network of political, diplomatic and business figures, although the indictment will now have to be tested through judicial proceedings.
W.’s defence lawyer, Berlin attorney Martin Schüßler, initially declined on Monday to comment on the allegations contained in the indictment when approached by SPIEGEL. Earlier in the year, her defence had criticised the federal prosecution in a request for a review of her detention, arguing, among other things, that prosecutors had adopted an overly broad interpretation of the offence of intelligence-agent activity.
The case will now move towards trial if the indictment is admitted. Proceedings against Ilona W. are expected to take place before a state security panel of the Berlin Kammergericht, putting the allegations of Russian intelligence activity inside Germany’s political and diplomatic environment before the courts.
