Ukraine War: Germany Shocked by Russian Assassination Plot

German politicians have reacted angrily to a report that Russia plotted to kill the head of Germany’s largest arms company, Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger.

According to the CNN report, US officials briefed their counterparts in Berlin earlier this year and security around him has been stepped up.

The German Interior Ministry declined to comment, but Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock appeared to confirm the details.

“In view of the latest reports on Rheinmetall, this is what we have been communicating more and more clearly in recent months,” she told reporters at the NATO summit in Washington. “Russia is waging a hybrid war of aggression.”

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the accusations. “All this is presented as fake news, and such information cannot be taken seriously.”

Rheinmetall has avoided commenting on “corporate security” issues, but Mr Papperger is now described as the most protected figure in German business. He told the Financial Times that German authorities had imposed “a high level of security around me”.

The company is one of the world’s largest ammunition producers and has become a key player in supplying Ukraine with weapons, armored vehicles and other military equipment.

Rheinmetall recently opened a tank repair plant in western Ukraine. Last month, it signed an agreement with Ukraine to expand cooperation in the coming years, including by establishing a joint venture for the production of artillery shells.

Mr Papperger said at the time that his company wanted to deliver the first Lynx infantry fighting vehicles later this year and begin producing them in Ukraine soon.

Although Chancellor Olaf Scholz avoided commenting directly on the assassination plan, he said it was well known that Germany was exposed to various Russian threats and was paying close attention to them.

Interior Secretary Nancy Faeser said: “We take the significantly increased threat of Russian aggression very seriously.”

Earlier this week, a senior NATO official told the BBC that Russia was “engaging in aggressive covert operations across Europe – involving sabotage, arson and assassination plots – aimed at weakening public support for Ukraine.”

The German Foreign Minister said that the Baltic states had already highlighted the various methods used by Vladimir Putin in his war against Ukraine. In addition to sabotage, she mentioned cyberattacks and disruption of GPS signals, preventing Baltic planes from landing in neighboring countries.

“We have seen that there have been attacks on factories, and this underlines once again that together we Europeans must protect ourselves as best we can and not be naive,” Baerbock told reporters.

At the beginning of May, a building belonging to the Diehl Metall company caught fire in southwest Berlin. Although a technical fault was attributed to the fire, sabotage cannot be ruled out. Suspicious fires have also been reported in Poland and Lithuania.

Last April, Mr Papperger’s garden house was set on fire in Hermannsburg, northern Germany, although there is no evidence of a link to Russia.

The fire was quickly brought under control, and a rambling, anonymous confession purportedly from left-wing activists appeared on the Indymedia activist network.

The reported plot against such a prestigious German CEO has caused great concern.

Roderich Kiesewetter, a leading conservative leader, said the chancellor should tell the German public the extent of the Russian threat. He added that German intelligence services should be strengthened to match those of neighboring countries.

“We have to take this very seriously and prepare accordingly,” he told public broadcaster ZDF.

Michael Roth, chairman of Germany’s foreign affairs committee, told Bild newspaper that Vladimir Putin was waging a “war of extermination not only against Ukraine, but also against its supporters and our values.”

Defence Committee chairman Marcus Faber added his condemnation, saying that if information about Russian intelligence involvement was revealed, then “the expulsion of diplomats should follow and, if necessary, international arrest warrants should be issued.”