Europe continues to be at the center of covert operations Russian. Two alleged spies in the pay of the Kremlin were arrested in Bayreuth, Bavaria, on the orders of the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office. The men have been identified as Dieter S. and Alexander J. and are accused of planning actions of sabotage also against “US military installations” stationed in Germany to undermine support for Ukraine. Among these would be the Grafenwoehr base, where the US army trained Kiev soldiers in the use of Western weapons such as Abrams tanks.
The two would haveoperated for a foreign intelligence service”, in what federal authorities have defined as “a particularly serious case of sabotage”. In particular, Dieter S. would have exchanged information with a person linked to the Russian secret services since October 2023 and would have declared himself ready to “comit explosive attacks And arsonespecially against military infrastructure and industrial sites in Germany”. The man is also accused of belonging to aterrorist organization foreigner and the prosecutor’s office suspects that he fought in a unit of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic between 2014 and 2016. Alexander J. joined him only recently, in March 2024.
“We will continue to counter such threat plans“said Home Affairs Minister Nancy Fraser, describing the incident as a particularly serious case of “suspected activity of agents of the criminal regime of Putin“. “We will continue to provide Ukraine with massive support and will not let go intimidate“, he added. According to what was reported by Der Spiegel, the Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador. Justice Marco Buschmann wrote in X that Germany “he is aware of being in the crosshairs of the Russian power apparatus” is that “we must respond to this threat with resistence and determination”.
Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, the Federal Republic of Germany has been rocked by several cases of alleged espionage in favor of Moscow and numerous insinuations have been made that officials in the country have been too supportive with the Kremlin. A former officer ofintelligence of Berlin is currently on trial on charges of having passed to the Federation information demonstrating that Germany had access to details of the operations of the Russian mercenaries in the invaded country.
In November 2022, a German citizen was given a suspended sentence for transmitting sensitive data to Moscow during his time as a reserve officer in the army.
