The German government is not currently in talks to sell its Deutsche Telekom AG shares to Russia’s Sistema, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said in an interview with Spiegel magazine.

“Contrary to reports saying otherwise, the issue is not up for discussion, that the Russian company might buy a stake in Telekom,” Steinbrueck told the magazine.

The German government and Germany’s state-owned KfW bank together control 31.7 pct of Deutsche Telekom’s shares.

Steinbrueck pointed to Sistema head Vladimir Yevtushenkov making similar statements in past weeks that the stock was not up for sale.

Yevtushenkov told Focus magazine in mid-November that he was interested in a renewed attempt to buy a 5-10 pct stake in Germany’s largest telecommunications provider. He said, however, the company would not buy the shares without full approval from the German government.

Since the beginning of the year, media reports have speculated that Sistema might buy up to a 20 pct stake in Telekom, perhaps through a share swap.

According to a recent article in Tagesspiegel, Germany’s BND intelligence agency is opposed to the idea of Sistema taking a stake in the telecoms giant.

The report cited sources close to the BND saying that the BND has pointed to Russia’s active espionage ring in Germany and with Sistema as a shareholder, the agency is worried that people who are not allowed to gain access to telecommunications data would be able to do so if the Russian company were a shareholder.

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