Reports by alleged Finnish Stasi spy “Larsen” also used by KGB

East Germans apparently suspected research radar as part of anti-missile programme

print this

Two reports submitted to the East German intelligence service Stasi by a Finnish informer with the code name “Larsen”, were passed on to the Soviet KGB.
      German officials say that the real identity of “Larsen” is Lassi Päivärinta, who is currently a professor of mathematics at the Univrersity of Helsinki.
      Päivärinta has denied that he ever consciously worked for Stasi.
     
One of the reports that ended up with the KGB concerns the EISCAT project, involving powerful radars set up in Finland, Sweden, and Norway to study the ionosphere.
      The radars have been used for more than 30 years to study the interaction between the sun and the earth, including the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights.
      Stasi found the information to be very interesting, and classified it as confidential.
     
The interest of the East Germans in Northern Lights research might seem strange, but in light of the prevailing atmosphere of the Cold War years, it is quite logical.
      A military source told Helsingin Sanomat on Thursday that the EISCAT system operates in the same frequency range as missile warning systems. The technology also makes it possible to see beyond the horizon, allowing for an early warning and more time to launch anti-missile missiles, or a retaliatory strike.
      The signals form EISCAT radar and anti-missile radar are reflected back toward the earth from particles in the upper atmosphere, sending a weak signal back to the radar station, where the information needs to be interpreted correctly.
     
The process involves inversion mathematics, which helps in the interpretation of data containing incomplete information or measurement errors. Professor Päivärinta is an expert in inversion mathematics.
      The Stasi reports on Larsen indicate that Stasi and Larsen suspected that EISCAT was a NATO project.
      Larsen’s Stasi recruitment report reads: “The information that he gave us in writing about an important NATO project in his country can be seen as his possibility to support our army actively.”
     
German researcher Helmut Müller-Engbergs, who works for the German Federal Commissioner for the Stasi records, or BStU, says that Stasi was very interested in Eiscat and in ionosphere research in general.
      “A number of spies, not only Larsen, gathered information on ionosphere matters for Stasi”, Müller-Engbergs says.
      Another study that was passed on to the KGB, which was said to have been sent by Larsen in 1982, is a 42-page report on seismology from the University of Helsinki.
     
Larsen delivered a total of 29 scientific reports to Stasi between 1982 and 1989. There is no trace in the Stasi files of the studies themselves, but their lists remain.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finn suspected of years of espionage for Stasi (26.1.2012)
  Professor denies spying for East Germany (20.1.2012)

Helsingin Sanomat