The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) announced today the arrest of a Russian-German citizen accused of preparing acts of sabotage on the Russian railway network in favor of Ukraine.
The detainee confessed to having made preparations to plant an explosive device on a section of the railway network in the city of Nizhny Novgorod (west), 400 kilometers east of Moscow, the FSB said.
According to a statement quoted by the Russian news agency Interfax, the 21-year-old man is believed to have acted in exchange for "a financial reward promised" by the Ukrainian military intelligence service.
The Russian-German, who has been subject to criminal proceedings for sabotage, was detained along with other suspects of professing "radical neo-Nazi ideology" and accused of crimes of a "common nature", the FSB added.
On November 20, the FSB announced the arrest of Nikolai Gaidouk, a German citizen born in 1967, for allegedly being “involved in the March 2024 explosion at a gas distribution station” in Kaliningrad (northwest).
The security services accused Gaidouk of having attempted to enter Russia from Poland “to organize acts of sabotage on the local energy infrastructure.”
A resident of Hamburg, in northern Germany, Gaidouk was detained upon entering Russia at a border crossing in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the doorstep of the European Union, and placed in pre-trial detention, according to the same source.
Half a litre of explosive liquid was seized during an inspection of the car he was driving, the FSB said.
According to local media, the explosive was hidden in a shampoo box.
"It has been established that Mr Gaidouk received the order to trigger an explosion and the components of an improvised explosive device from a Ukrainian citizen," Alexander Jorov, who also lives in Hamburg, said the FSB.
Cases of sabotage, treason or terrorism have been on the rise in Russia since the start of the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops in February 2022.
In recent years, several Westerners, especially Americans, have also been detained in Russia and faced serious charges.
On October 14, the Russian prosecutor's office requested a three-year and three-month prison sentence for Frenchman Laurent Vinatier, who has been detained since June and accused of collecting "information in the field of military activities" that could be "used against the security" of Russia.
Washington has accused the Kremlin of using foreign citizens as hostages to obtain the release of Russians detained abroad.
On August 1, the West and Russia carried out the largest prisoner swap since the end of the Cold War, including American journalist Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan, who were released by Moscow.
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