In the quiet corridors of Berlin's business and political life, a 57-year-old marketing executive named Ilona W. allegedly turned her legitimate access into an instrument of foreign intelligence. Charged this week by German federal prosecutors with spying for Russia, she stands accused of helping a Russian embassy officer build networks and extract sensitive information about German defense policy — work that began, prosecutors say, in October 2023 and continued as Europe's security landscape grew ever more fraught. Her arrest and the subsequent expulsion of diplomats on both sides remind us t