A married spy couple have been jailed in Germany after being found guilty of espionage for their Russian paymasters for 25 years.

The couple, codenamed Andreas and Heidrun Anschlag, are said to have settled in former West Germany on false passports a quarter of a century ago.

They began their snooping career in the same city – Dresden – where Russian leader Vladimir Putin was posted for the KGB.

The duo are accused of first feeding information about West Germany to the former Soviet Union, then the reunited land to the Russian Republic.

‘The accused had the task of gathering information about the political and military strategy of the EU and NATO,’ said the prosecutor at their trial, as well as ‘security-relevant political aspects of relations between Germany, the EU and NATO to Russia.’

Investigators said it was due to information gleaned from the interrogations in America that led to the arrests of the spy duo in Germany.

Two Austrian passports, both said to be forgeries made by the counterfeiters of the SVR, were seized when they were taken into custody.

A court in Stuttgart gave Andreas Anschlag six years and six months, and Heidrun five years and six months.

Their daughter was born and raised in Germany and knew nothing of their activities – nor of their true identities before they became spies.