After most events in political Berlin, journalists' inboxes are full of press releases.

Politicians are always commenting.

But after the announcement that a Russian spy had been exposed within the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), things remained noticeably quiet.

There was no reaction from the members of the parliamentary control body, which is responsible for monitoring the intelligence services.

Helen Bubrowski

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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This has nothing to do with any Christmas holidays.

There is a lot of talk in the background, a special meeting of the committee was being discussed for Friday, but was postponed.

The reluctance has to do with the seriousness of the situation.

BND President Bruno Kahl expressly asked for discretion on Thursday.

Any information leaking out would give Moscow clues as to what the German authorities know and in which directions they are investigating.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), Chairwoman of the Defense Committee, referred to another danger: "Anyone who has anything to do with Russia knows that people who could possibly say something about it are easily eliminated," she said the Bavarian Radio.

"And for that reason alone, to protect them, it would be good not to go into more detail."

SPD calls for measures against Russia

Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) limited himself to congratulating the Attorney General.

"If the suspicion is confirmed, an important blow against Russian espionage has been struck here," he wrote on Twitter.

This shows "how vigilant we have to be".

The SPD foreign policy expert Nils Schmid said on Deutschlandfunk that Moscow has been in a conflict with the West for years and believes that all means are permissible.

It is necessary to counteract Russia's hybrid warfare "much more carefully".

The Federal Public Prosecutor announced on Thursday afternoon that the German citizen Carsten L. was strongly suspected of having committed treason.

He is said to have passed on state secrets that he had obtained in the course of his professional activity to a Russian intelligence service.

Now he is in custody.

Nothing is known about his function within the BND.

It is also unclear how the BND found out about it.

The Federal Criminal Police Office searched the suspect's home and workplace and one other person.

The investigators are investigating whether Carsten L. had supporters or accomplices.

All BND employees, regardless of their specific job, must undergo an extended security check with security investigations.

This is the highest level, the requirements and the procedure are regulated in the Security Clearance Act.

This includes, among other things, questioning reference persons in order to check whether all the information provided by the person concerned is correct and whether there are any indications that point to a security risk.

In addition, a safety declaration covering the past ten years must be submitted, which must be updated every five years.

The entire test is repeated as soon as there are indications that this is necessary, otherwise after a maximum of ten years.

Treason (Article 94 of the Criminal Code) carries a prison sentence of at least one year and a maximum of 15 years, and in particularly serious cases it can even be life imprisonment.

The offense is the most serious of the crimes involving threats to external security.

Anyone who commits treason betrays a state secret to a foreign power.

As a rule, the facts of the secret service agent activity are then also fulfilled.

It is sufficient for the secret service of a foreign power to be informed of facts or knowledge that are not state secrets.

In legal dogmatics, this less severely sanctioned offense takes a back seat to treason.

It is "consumed", say lawyers, so it is included in treason and is not independently accused.