Russian intelligence arrests German citizen on sabotage allegations

The Russian domestic intelligence service the FSB has reportedly arrested a German citizen in Kaliningrad on Wednesday for allegedly planning acts of sabotage.

Upon entering the Russian Baltic Sea exclave from Poland, 50 grams of liquid explosives were allegedly seized in his car, which he had driven from his home in Hamburg.

The FSB alleged that the man had received orders from a Ukrainian man who also lives in Hamburg to carry out some sort of attack, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Russian authorities also suspect the German man of having carried out an explosives attack on a gas distribution station in the Kaliningrad region in March.

According to Russian media reports, the FSB alleges that the man again intended to damage Russian energy facilities when he re-entered Russia.

He has been remanded in custody on charges of terrorism and smuggling explosives, and Russian authorities are searching for suspected accomplices in the alleged plot.

However, there was no independent confirmation of these accusations by the Russian intelligence service.

The man in question is a German national who was born in 1967 in Hamburg, Russian news agencies reported.

A spokeswoman for the German Foreign Office in Berlin said that the German Consulate General in St Petersburg had offered the arrested man consular assistance and was in contact with the Russian authorities.

The man only has German citizenship and is not a dual national, she said.

Overall, she said that the German Foreign Office is aware of a low double-digit number of people with German citizenship who are currently being detained in Russia.

The spokeswoman declined to provide any details about the individuals or the reasons for their detention due to privacy concerns.

In general, the spokeswoman emphasized that there is an atmosphere of intimidation and fear in Russia, which can also lead to arbitrary arrests of foreign nationals.

For this reason, the German Foreign Office strongly advises people against traveling to Russia.

Relations between Russia and NATO countries, including Germany, have been at their worst point in decades since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

During the conflict, Russian authorities have repeatedly arrested foreign citizens on hotly disputed charges, including in several incidents which Western governments have denounced as false or trumped-up cases.

Russia has been accused of trying to use foreign citizens as bargaining chips for possible prisoner exchanges.

The Ukrainian secret services have carried out several attacks or acts of sabotage in Russia during the war.