Not in war — Faultline

Soon to be closed: the Russian House, formerly the House of Soviet Science and Culture (here 1984)

It took three weeks for Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) to publicly comment on the attempted drone attack at Leipzig Airport on August 4th for the first time - and almost a month before he announced a reaction in the ARD summer interview. This followed on September 1st, but did not come from Merz himself, but from Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU). The latter said that the findings of German security authorities and those of European partners "clearly indicate Russian involvement" and that the execution of the attempted attack was "the work of low-level agents."

The following consequences were announced at the press conference of the two ministers: The Russian ambassador was summoned and the Russian consulate general in Bonn was ordered to close in mid-September. In addition, the contract for the Russian House of Science and Culture in Berlin is to be terminated. The facility is operated by the sanctioned Russian state agency Rossotrudnichestvo. German authorities have never officially accused the Russian House of espionage, but the French Interior Ministry said in July that it was "used as a cover by the Russian secret services." In addition, entry controls for Russian citizens are to be tightened and pressure on the Russian shadow fleet is to be increased.

In a situation report as of the end of August, the Federal Criminal Police Office counted 165 suspected acts of sabotage this year.

Wadephul said: »Russia shows no willingness to compromise. On the contrary. With the attempted attack in Leipzig, the Russian leadership consciously decided to further significantly damage our already heavily strained bilateral relationship. "We are not at war with Russia, but are still a war target.

The Kremlin's reaction was not long in coming. On the evening of September 1st, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the press at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek that the new sanctions were a "gross mistake." The evidence of Russian involvement in Leipzig was falsified. A statement from the Russian embassy in Berlin spoke of a "new wave of anti-Russian hysteria in Germany." On September 2nd, Bernd Finke, a representative of the German embassy in Russia, was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

A day later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that the Goethe Institutes in Russia would also be closed after the Russian House was closed. The German cultural institute has facilities in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Novosibirsk.

According to Die Zeit, two suspects are being investigated in connection with the attempted attack at Leipzig Airport. According to Spiegel information, German investigative authorities are examining whether drone components seized by Serbian military intelligence from a Serbian and a Russian citizen in June are related to the attack in Leipzig. The NDR, the WDR and the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on September 2nd about a Belarusian with a Russian passport whose DNA had been seized in Leipzig. He is said to have entered the Schengen area on a tourist visa issued by Italy. A second suspect is a Latvian-Russian dual citizen.

According to NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche, the Federal Criminal Police Office counted 165 suspected acts of sabotage this year in a situation report as of the end of August. 24 investigations into espionage have been initiated. Also mentioned were 1,068 drone sightings over critical infrastructure, defense contractors and military facilities.

Meanwhile, Russian propagandists tried to stir up uncertainty in Germany with the attempted attack in Leipzig and in turn accuse the German government of aggressive behavior towards Russia.

A number of other suspected attacks took place in the first days of September. Small home-made rockets were seized in Jänschwalde, Brandenburg, and on the same day a substation in Bergheim in North Rhine-Westphalia was sabotaged. In Dormagen, suspicious devices were seized near a substation, as well as in several other locations. The investigating authorities announced that they had letters of confession. These are therefore considered authentic because they contain comprehensive knowledge of the perpetrators. The motivation is that electricity from fossil fuels is “a crime”. On September 8th it became known that the suspect Daniel V. was arrested during a traffic stop. There is so far no evidence of a connection to Russia.

Meanwhile, Russian propagandists tried to stir up uncertainty in Germany with the attempted attack in Leipzig and in turn accuse the German government of aggressive behavior towards Russia. The EU-wide banned broadcaster RT Deutsch, for example, happily took up a question from journalist Tilo Jung at the federal press conference on September 2nd, who asked about the supposedly missing evidence. Government spokesman Steffen Meyer answered abstractly with reference to crime patterns, police investigations and intelligence findings. Both Jung and RT Deutsch left unmentioned the fact that it is common practice not to disclose any evidence to the public during ongoing investigations. Various pro-Russian Telegram groups spread the conspiracy story that it was actually a Ukrainian drone.

Meanwhile, the propagandists adopted a shriller tone in Russian. The well-known television and radio presenter Vladimir Solovyov said: "The provocation in Leipzig is ridiculous - just talking about it is ridiculous." He is calling for diplomatic relations with the EU to be broken off. "I am of the opinion that we should revoke the recognition of Germany as a state." Lavrov said on Russian television that the German accusations against Russia were "the beginning of a real war."