(TargetDailyNews.com) – German police have arrested two men on allegations that they’re actually secret agents spying for Russia intending to stop European aid from reaching war-torn Ukraine.
The men are described as German-Russian nationals and are identified only by their first names and the initials of their last names. They are 39-year-old Dieter S and 37-year-old Alexander J.
Bavarian police arrested them during an April 17th raid in the southeastern German town of Bayreuth. Authorities accuse the pair of passing information to Russia’s military intelligence agencies as part of a plan to perform various acts of sabotage within Germany, according to the country’s federal prosecutor.
The Financial Times reports that Russia has beefed up its international espionage in Europe recently, and European officials are alarmed at the Kremlin’s willingness to deploy spies who will carry out violent physical attacks. Dieter S and Alexander J are accused of taking photos and videos of German industrial and transportation hubs, as well as drawing up maps of their layout. Presumably, these locations may be picked for acts of destruction.
German interior minister Nancy Faeser said the country’s security forces have stopped what might have been “explosive attacks” meant to hobble Germany’s ability to send military aid to Ukraine. She called the efforts of the two arrested men part of a “particularly serious” spying incident for “Putin’s criminal regime.” Germany will continue to give “massive” help to Ukraine and will not be intimidated by Russian agents, Faeser added.
German investigators are now probing the network of agents the two arrested men may have been working with. Dieter S is a familiar name to German security officials as he was fighting in Ukraine on behalf of Russian separatists from 2014 through 2016. Germany is apparently of high interest to Russia and is described as one of its leading targets because it’s Europe’s biggest supplier of military support to Ukraine. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has destroyed the formerly cool but cordial and open relationship between Berlin and Moscow.
Aside from worries about traditional political and corporate espionage by Russian spies, Germany also believes Russian agents are working to spread “disinformation” online.
Russia objected strenuously to the arrests of the two men, saying it was “absurd and ridiculous” to claim that Russia intended to attack any German targets.
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