MOSCOW. Oct 24 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has refrained from commenting on German media reports alleging that two people suspected of spying for Russia had been detained in that country.
"We will leave these reports without comments," SVR spokesman Sergei Ivanov told Interfax on Saturday.
A number of German media reported earlier that the German federal police had announced the detention of a man and a woman in the central part of the country on suspicion of passing classified information to Russian intelligence services. The two were detained in the towns of Balingen and Marburg. Investigators confiscated two fake Austrian passports from the suspects. The passports said that the man, identified as Andreas A., was born in Argentina and the woman, Heidrun A., in Peru. However, the German investigators found out with assistance from the Argentine and Peruvian authorities that this information was untrue.
The police suspect that the two had worked in Germany for the Russian intelligence service for years.