German intelligence services believe that a weapons cache discovered last year in a forest near Berlin may have been intended for agents who were supposed to carry out contract killings on behalf of Russia. BBC reports this, writes UNN.
Details
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said that in October last year, domestic intelligence received information about a cache on the outskirts of Berlin. Intelligence officers, together with the police, found two pistols and a supply of ammunition there.
According to Dobrindt, the weapons were rendered inoperable. For several months, the intelligence services monitored the cache, but no one ever came for it.
This case demonstrates that we have to work under conditions of a high level of threat
German intelligence suspects a Russian link
As reported by Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR, citing sources at Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the agency believes that the cache belonged to Russian intelligence.
Germany's security services are convinced that the weapons were intended for agents who, on Moscow's orders, were supposed to carry out so-called "kinetic operations" in the country—in other words, killings
The journalists note that BfV head Sinan Selen had previously warned at closed-door meetings about the intensification of Russian intelligence activity in Germany. According to the media, possible targets could have included defense industry executives, opposition figures in exile, and supporters of Ukraine.
Dobrindt did not confirm a direct link between the cache and Russia, but said he did not rule out the "involvement of foreign states".
Separately, German prosecutors are investigating the possible involvement in the case of a man detained in Romania on suspicion of planning attacks using explosive devices in parcels. According to AFP, he is one of two Ukrainian citizens detained in Romania last year. Romanian intelligence said at the time that they were linked to a broader sabotage network controlled by Russian intelligence services.