Alleged Russian Spies Accused of Preparing Bombing Attacks Against U.S. Base in in Germany Arrested

Two German-Russian dual citizens accused of membership of a pro-Kremlin terrorist organisation, of scouting military bases, and planning bombings have been arrested by Federal police.

The German Federal Prosecutor released details of the allegations against two individuals arrested on Wednesday who stand accused of espionage and planned sabotage on behalf of Russian intelligence agencies.

Dieter S. is said to have been active in passing images of military installations to contacts in Russia and of planning an attack since October 2023, while Alexander J. is believed to have become involved more recently, in March 2024. Both men are reportedly Russian-German dual nationals.

German broadcaster BR24 cites the comments of Federal Prosecutor General Jens Rommel who said Dieter S. was working to “undermine the military support provided by Germany to Ukraine against the Russian war of aggression”, particularly in planning to “commit explosives and arson attacks, especially on military infrastructure and industrial sites in Germany”.

This particularly took the form of hostile reconnaissance against the U.S. 7th Army’s Garrison Bavaria at the Grafenwöhr training area. Crucially, it is at this base where the U.S. trains Ukrainian soldiers, and Ukrainian tank crews to operate the M1 Abrams main battle tank.

According to the prosecutor, reports Die Welt, Dieter S. intended to “undermine the military support provided by Germany to Ukraine against the Russian war of aggression” by attacking the base. In all, he is accused of  “conspiring to cause an explosive explosion and arson, acting as an agent for sabotage purposes… membership in a foreign terrorist organization and preparing a serious act of violence that endangers the state”, the publisher states.

Discussing the arrests, German Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser of the left-wing SPD party said: “Our security authorities prevented possible explosive attacks that were intended to target and undermine our military assistance to Ukraine… We will continue to provide massive support to Ukraine and will not allow ourselves to be intimidated”.

Far from a clumsy attempt at sabotage, it is alleged Dieter S. is an experienced soldier with combat experience. There is a “strong suspicion”, it is stated, that he previously fought with a military unit of the ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ — an eastern Ukrainian region which has been occupied by Russia to varying degrees for a decade.

The arrests are only the latest of their kind of alleged Russian spies and saboteurs in European states of recent months, which have come alongside several other cases where Russian ‘diplomats’ have been ordered to return to Moscow after being accused of abusing their diplomatic position to spy.

The acts of sabotage have varied from the comparatively slight — ten people were arrested for allegedly breaking car windows on behalf of the Kremlin in Estonia this year — to the more serious, with a group in Poland convicted of planning to attack military trains. The agents were paid in cryptocurrency and had set secret high-resolution cameras watching military bases and are said to have planned to derail trains carrying equipment through Poland towards Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia may have its own spy problem and appears to have revitalized its old Soviet-era counterespionage unit ‘SMERSH’, famous throughout the West as it featured as an antagonist in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels.