Germany German authorities suspect Russia behind series of car sabotages
Police in Germany are investigating the suspicion that a Russian secret service is behind a series of acts of sabotage against cars in several German states. According to initial investigations, it is assumed that the saboteurs received money for their actions from a Russian client, according to security circles.
05.02.2025, 13:28
SDA
The news magazine "Der Spiegel" first reported on the results of the investigation. According to the report, more than 270 vehicles were involved in the federal states of Berlin, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Brandenburg.
According to the "Spiegel" report, a police patrol in Schönefeld, Brandenburg, noticed a van with three young men carrying several cartridges of construction foam. Shortly after the check, 43 reports were received from car owners whose vehicles had had their exhaust pipes blocked with construction foam. Scraps of paper with slogans referring to the Green Party were left at the scene - possibly an attempt to portray the crime as an action by radical climate activists.
"For months, espionage and sabotage have been used in a targeted attempt to stir up uncertainty, fuel existing conflicts and divide us as a society," commented Konstantin von Notz, a Green Party politician for internal affairs, on the series of sabotages. For months now, the domestic secret service (Verfassungsschutz) has seen a tendency among Russian actors to recruit people - some from the petty criminal milieu - to carry out espionage and sabotage operations for money.
