New espionage scandal in Germany. Police arrested two German-Russian citizens yesterday in Bayreuth, Bavaria, who allegedly planned sabotage actions on behalf of Moscow. It is also assumed – from the first communications of the Attorney General to the Federal Court – that they worked in contact with a “foreign secret service”, namely the Russian one.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who in the past had stated that Germany will not be intimidated, defined the fact as “serious” and announced that the government “has increased security measures”. The Russian ambassador was summoned by the Foreign Ministry, while the Kremlin denies any involvement.
The main accused, Dieter S., 39 years old, he agreed – according to the prosecutor’s office – to “carry out explosive and incendiary attacks” against military infrastructures and industrial sites in Germany. Since last March he would have been helped by a second person, Alexander J., also with a double passport. Dieter S. would also have photographed — on behalf of the clients — military bases and infrastructure in Bavaria.
It is a subject known to German services: between 2014 and 2016 he was a member of a militia of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”, the breakaway republic of Ukraine. The most interesting thing for national security — and what we will need to understand more about — is that Dieter S. he would have been in contact with Russian agents since at least October 2023and would have acted on their behalf: he would also have discussed possible attacks with them.
One of the monitored objects was a US Army base in Grafenwöhr in Bavaria, one of the most important in Europe. Here there is a training camp for Ukrainian soldiers, who are introduced to the use of Abrams tanks. Not only that, but Considerable military aid is sent from Bavaria to Kiev. The objective would have been precisely to sabotage the supply routes.
The attacks – says Lo Spiegel who spread the news — the saboteurs’ intentions were to undermine German support for the war. Bavaria has long been one of the bases of Russian operations in Germany. It is also in a strategic position, near Austria – the true hub of the Kremlin’s spies home to many German aeronautical and military industriesas well as important American bases.
He was at home here Jan Marsalek, Wirecard’s number 2 who fled to Russia and Moscow’s “agent of influence”, which had its own villa – annual rent of 680 thousand euros – right in front of the Russian consulate. Such was the infiltration of the diplomatic corps stationed in Munich by secret agents that Germany ordered its closure in December.
