Western intelligence services foiled a Russian plot to murder Armin Papperger, the chief executive of Rheinmetall, Germany’s leading arms manufacturer, CNN reported.
Russia is said to plan to kill industrialists in the European weapons manufacturing sector who are involved in delivering weapons to Ukraine.
American intelligence services reportedly discovered plans to assassinate Papperger and informed their German counterparts, who were able to protect the Rheinmetall chief and foil the plot.
“A high-level German Government official confirmed that Berlin was warned about the plot by the US,” CNN said. The German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung also confirmed that according to its sources the information was correct.
NEW: Russian authorities reportedly attempted to assassinate leading figures in the European defense industrial base (DIB), likely as part of Russian efforts to disrupt and deter Western aid to Ukraine and Russia's wider efforts to destabilize NATO members. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/cYdjHcX0Ql
— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) July 12, 2024
Russia has been suspected of carrying out a sabotage campaign across Europe for more than six months, largely by proxy.
“It has recruited local amateurs for everything from arson attacks on warehouses linked to arms for Ukraine to petty acts of vandalism — all designed to stymie the flow of weapons from the West to Ukraine and blunt public support for Kyiv,” according to CNN.
“But the intelligence suggesting that Russia was willing to assassinate private citizens underlined to Western officials just how far Moscow was willing to go in a parallel shadow war it is waging across the west.”
CNN said Papperger was “an obvious target”, as his company is the largest and most successful German manufacturer of the vital 155mm artillery shells that have become crucial in Ukraine’s grinding war of attrition, at a time when European production is lagging.
Rheinmetall also plans to open an armoured-vehicle production plant in Ukraine, much to the dislike of Russia.
“We’re seeing sabotage, we’re seeing assassination plots, we’re seeing arson. We’re seeing things that have a cost in human lives,” a senior NATO official told reporters on July 9. “I believe very much that we’re seeing a campaign of covert sabotage activities from Russia that have strategic consequences.”
Russia ‘preparing covert bombings, arson, and infrastructure attacks in Europe’https://t.co/F0Zy7nWFr7
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) May 6, 2024
A US National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement: “The United States has been discussing this issue with our NATO Allies, and we are actively working together to expose and disrupt these activities.
“We have also been clear that Russia’s actions will not deter allies from continuing to support Ukraine.”
German officials declined to comment on the specifics of CNN’s report but, speaking on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington on July 11, Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said it showed how Russia was “waging a hybrid war of aggression” on European allies.
“We have seen that there have been attacks on factories. And this underlines once again that we as Europeans must protect ourselves as best we can and not be naive,” Baerbock said.
Oliver Hoffman, spokesman for Rheinmetall, declined to comment in detail, saying only: “The necessary measures are always taken in regular consultation with the security authorities.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declined to comment on the report when asked during a press conference at the NATO summit in Washington.
While NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg did not respond directly, he did say Russia’s intimidation tactics had not worked.
Regarding the CNN report, Marcus Faber (FDP), chairman of the German parliamentary defence committee, Marcus Faber (FDP), told Bild newspaper: “It shows once again that Russia is also carrying its war and terror to Europe.
“The Putin regime is now also seeking the lives of German citizens.”
Michael Roth, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, said Putin was waging “not only a war of annihilation against Ukraine, but also against its supporters and our values”.
CDU defence expert Serap Güler added: “The news is symptomatic of how Russia is proceeding regardless of civilian casualties. It doesn’t matter what red lines we draw in order not to become a party to the war, Putin obviously already sees us as such.”
Konstantin von Notz, security expert with Germany’s The Greens, called his country’s reaction to previous similar reports “often too timid and indecisive in the past”.
“We must understand that these are no longer singular incidents, but that our democracy and our rule of law are deliberately seriously threatened and also attacked by various authoritarian states,” he said.
In the Financial Times, Papperger said the German Government had “built a high degree of security around his person”.
He indirectly confirmed the report. “I think CNN is not just looking up at the sky,” he said when asked about the validity of the story.
The Russian Embassy in Washington and the Kremlin did not comment on the report.
A series of incidents on Poland’s railways have raised security concerns after a number of trains were halted by unofficial “stop” radio signals. https://t.co/fjH8IGE0x8
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 29, 2023
