German shock at reported Russian assassination plot
German political figures have responded with strong dismay to a report alleging that Russia had planned to assassinate Armin Papperger, the head of Germany’s largest arms company, Rheinmetall.
According to CNN, US officials informed their German counterparts earlier this year, prompting heightened security measures around Papperger. While Germany’s interior ministry declined to comment, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock seemed to confirm the report, stating at the NATO summit in Washington, “Recent reports concerning Rheinmetall align with what we’ve been increasingly emphasizing in recent months: Russia is conducting a hybrid war of aggression.”
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the allegations, labeling them as yet another fabricated story. Rheinmetall refrained from discussing matters of corporate security, though Papperger is now reportedly among the most heavily protected figures in Germany’s economic landscape. He acknowledged to the Financial Times that German authorities have implemented “significant security measures” around him.
Rheinmetall, a major global producer of ammunition, has played a crucial role in supplying Ukraine with arms, armored vehicles, and military equipment. The company recently inaugurated a tank repair facility in western Ukraine and signed an agreement to expand cooperation, including a joint venture for artillery shell production.
While Chancellor Olaf Scholz avoided direct comment on the alleged assassination plot, he acknowledged Germany’s awareness of various Russian threats and its vigilant stance in response.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said “we are taking very seriously the significantly heightened threat of Russian aggression”.
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 the Baltic states had already highlighted the various methods deployed by Russia’s Vladimir Putin in his war on Ukraine. As well as sabotage, she spoke of cyberattacks and disrupting GPS signals so that Baltic flights could no longer land in neighbouring countries.
“We have seen that there have been attacks on factories, and that again underlines that, together, we as Europeans must protect ourselves as best we can and not be naive,” Ms Baerbock told reporters.
In early May, a building complex owned by the Diehl Metall firm went up in flames in south-west Berlin. Although a technical fault was blamed for the fire, sabotage has not been ruled out. Suspicious fires have also been reported in Poland and Lithuania.
Last April, Mr Papperger’s garden house was set alight at Hermannsburg in northern Germany, although there has been no evidence of a Russian link.
The fire was quickly brought under control and a rambling, anonymous confession purportedly from leftist militants appeared on activist network Indymedia.
The reported plot against such a high-profile German CEO has prompted widespread alarm.
Leading conservative figure Roderich Kiesewetter said the chancellor should come clean with the German population about how great the threat from Russia really was. German intelligence needed to be boosted to the level of neighbouring countries, he said.
“We must take it very seriously and also prepare ourselves accordingly,” he told public broadcaster ZDF.
Michael Roth, who chairs Germany’s foreign affairs committee told Bild newspaper that Vladimir Putin was waging a “war of extermination not only against Ukraine, but against its supporters and our values”.
The head of the defence committee, Marcus Faber, added his condemnation, saying if information about Russian intelligence involvement came to light, then “the expulsion of diplomats must follow and, if necessary, international arrest warrants must be issued”.
