April 18, 2024 (EIRNS)—On Thursday morning, April 18, media reported that German counterintelligence had announced the arrest of two men who were allegedly spying for Russia and preparing acts of sabotage. “The actions were intended in particular to undermine the military support provided from Germany to Ukraine against the Russian war of aggression,” the statement from Germany’s highest law enforcement authority reads. The two people arrested in Bayreuth on April 17 are German-Russians.
The main suspect is said to have declared to the Russian secret service that he was prepared to carry out explosive and arson attacks on military infrastructure and industrial sites. He therefore spied on possible targets, including facilities of the U.S. Armed Forces. The second suspect is said to have helped from March 2024 at the latest. Authorities searched the homes and workplaces of both men.
Citing investigative circles, Der Spiegel also reported that one of the objects spied on was a U.S. Army facility in Grafenwöhr, Bavaria. Among other things, there is an important military training area there, where the U.S. Army trains Ukrainian troops on Abrams battle tanks.
Another widely reported case is that the FBI held up Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Maximilian Krah, at the end of his December trip to a U.S. congress of young Republican Party members, before his return to Germany. The FBI held Krah up at the airport and confronted him with an exposé of a chat of Ukrainian opposition activist Oleg Voloshyn that the FBI had confiscated during its 2021 security check of him, indicating that the Voloshyn had given money to Krah. Voloshyn is said to have close connections to Ukrainian opposition figure Viktor Medvedchuk, who allegedly funds the “Voice of Europe” radio program in Prague, which Czech security officials have recently banned as a “pro-Russian propaganda channel.” No evidence of that has been provided.
Yet another widespread case, also dealing with the AfD, deals with Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke, who is on trial for his use of the term “Everything for Germany” (“Alles für Deutschland”) at public meetings, which prosecutors allege is a slogan directly that Höcke borrowed from the Nazi SA. Höcke denies it, saying it is his personal German version of Trump’s “America First,” but prosecutors argue that Höcke had known it came from the SA—the only evidence being that he is a history teacher and “must have known it.” The potential outcome of the trial may be the suspension of Höcke’s right to be elected, which would be a blow to the AfD, in which heads the Thuringian slate in September’s state parliament elections. AfD’s adversaries would welcome that, given that AfD substantially leads all other political parties in opinion polls. The Thuringian security agency lists Höcke and the AfD as rightwing-extremist and anti-constitutional.
