Germany: two people arrested for spying for Russia and attempted military sabotage

Police arrested two suspected operatives with ties to Russia in Bayreuth on Wednesday. They are suspected of scouting potential attack targets, including U.S. military facilities in Germany.

Germany’s Federal Prosecutor General’s Office has had two suspected Russian operatives arrested who were also ready to act through sabotage in Bavaria. This was announced Thursday by authorities, as first reported by ” Spiegel.” .

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office reported that agents from the Federal Criminal Police Office, who were in charge of the investigation, had arrested Dieter S. and Alexander J., two Russian-German nationals, in Bayreuth. In addition, with the support of the Bavarian state criminal police, the defendants’ homes and workplaces were searched.

Both are strongly suspected of working for foreign intelligence services in a particularly serious case. Dieter S. is also charged with conspiracy to cause an explosion and arson, acting as an agent for the purpose of sabotage and taking photographs of military installations endangering security, membership in a foreign terrorist organization and preparation of a serious act of violence endangering the state.

There is also a strong suspicion that Dieter S. worked in eastern Ukraine between December 2014 and September 2016 as a fighter for an armed unit of the “Donetsk People’s Republic” .

German support for Ukraine should be weakened

It appears that under control was a U.S. Army facility in Grafenwöhr, Bavaria. There is, among other things, an important military training area where the U.S. military trains Ukrainian soldiers, for example, on Abrams main battle tanks.

According to Federal Attorney General Dieter S., he is in contact with a person linked to Russian intelligence services. The defendant had been communicating with this person since October 2023 about possible sabotage actions in the Federal Republic of Germany. The actions were specifically designed to undermine Germany’s military assistance to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s aggressive war. In this context, the defendant told his interlocutor that he was prepared to carry out attacks with explosives and arson, particularly against infrastructure used by military and industrial sites in Germany’s

Grafenwöhr training base

To prepare for this, Dieter S. gathered information on potential targets for an attack, including U.S. military facilities. Alexander J. helped him by March 2024, at the latest. Dieter S. scouted targeted locations and took photos and videos, e.g., transport vehicles and military goods. He relayed the information he gathered to his contacts.

Dieter S. was brought before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice on Wednesday, who ordered that he be remanded in custody, Karlsruhe reported. Alexander J. is expected to be brought before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice on Thursday.

“We will not be intimidated,” Faeser says, but in the meantime, Germany is a mess in intelligence

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) then reaffirmed Germany’s support for Ukraine. “Our security authorities have prevented possible explosive attacks intended to target and weaken our military assistance to Ukraine.”

However, Germany is indeed a sieve for Russian services: a year ago, an army employee was arrested for spying for Russia, and in March this year, another German serviceman offered secrets to Russia, Then there is the scandal of Russian interceptions of military communications between Bundeswehr officers. The credibility of the German military is, frankly, at rock bottom.