According to three people acquainted with the investigation, he and Mr. Linke are thought to have first met in 2021 at a Weilheim sports club event where soccer coaches and their families enjoyed afternoon snacks of coffee and cake or drinks of beer. One of the local AfD members in Weilheim, who had previously served in the military alongside Mr. Eller and was still a reservist, introduced the two.
According to the Dossier Center, a Russian investigative group, Mr. Eller took hundreds of flights to numerous Russian cities in addition to New York, Los Angeles, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, Baku, Azerbaijan, Belgrade, Serbia, Tbilisi, Georgia, Prague, Doha, Qatar, Shanghai, and Geneva.
He frequently took extremely brief excursions back to his native country, but according to the Dossier Center, he always stayed in the finest hotels in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Also, he travelled to unexpectedly obscure Russian locales like Nizhnekamsk.
According to others familiar with the investigation, Mr. Eller has been cooperating with the investigators. Mr. Linke has not spoken at this time.
Those monitoring the investigation claim that Mr. Eller told investigators that he thought he was collaborating with Mr. Linke on a B.N.D. operation. Nonetheless, the German government has expressed concern over his account of the events.
Additionally, Mr. Eller claimed that he worked as a courier, delivering money and documents to Russia. He claimed to have given Mr. Linke cash packets four times in the latter part of last year, according to a source familiar with the investigation.
For their final handoff, Mr. Linke’s audacity reportedly extended to having a B.N.D. employee working at the Munich airport pick up Mr. Eller and collect a final cash exchange for him—an envelope that detectives suspect included 100,000 euros.