London and Warsaw veiledly accuse Moscow of rehearsing air sabotage with DHL planes

Clues lead to Russian espionage. That is the trail that the British, Poles and Germans are following in the investigation of the fires due to explosions that occurred this summer in the logistics centers of the DHL courier service in Leipzig (Germany) and Birmingham (United Kingdom). The fire broke out in packages sent from the Baltic countries to recipients in the United States and Canada. It is now known that the packages contained electrical devices manipulated with highly flammable material that could hardly have been extinguished by the fire extinguishers on board the plane. If the explosions had not occurred on land, a catastrophe could have been caused. DHL uses cargo planes, but eventually also passenger planes.

What seemed like a coincidence this summer turned into suspicion of sabotage when the two trap packages detected in Germany and one in the United Kingdom were joined by a fourth in Poland. In the case of Germany, the incident only became public at the end of August, six weeks after the fire in Leipzig. It was then that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Criminal Police Office sent a warning about incendiary devices in air freight transport to German companies.

Suspicions fell by default on Moscow. The theory arose that with the packages sent via DHL, Russian agents were testing ways to shoot down planes. The connection was made by the Lithuanian police with the arrest of a suspect who, apparently, worked for Russian espionage. Meanwhile, four other people have been arrested in Poland, whose names and nationality have not been given.

In statements to the newspaper ‘The Wall Street Journal’, the first to reveal the contents of the trap packages, the head of the Polish secret service, Pawel Szota, says he is not sure that Russia’s political leaders realize the consequences of the explosion in flight of these packages. “It would have caused many deaths”he states. There is no evidence for a formal accusation, but the connection remains.

The president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, has only publicly referred to the “fortunate coincidence” that the explosion in Leipzig was on the ground, since the plane on which the package was to be loaded was delayed. As a result, only one cargo container burned. The fire was put out immediately and there were no victims.

The explosion in Birmingham, which occurred on July 22, was only revealed after a joint investigation by the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’ and the German broadcasters WDR and NDR. “We can confirm that counter-terrorism officers are investigating an incident at a premises in Midpoint Way, Minworth,” a Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism spokesperson said. British investigators, like the Polish ones, are publicly suspicious of Moscow, but the truth is that they have not established exactly how the explosive device arrived in Birmingham, whether it was transported on a cargo or passenger plane, where it was going to be delivered afterwards, nor what was expected to be achieved by delivering it to the United Kingdom.

Still, Ken McCallum, head of MI5, makes a connection with the Russian military intelligence service GRU as it appears to be on a “continuous mission to create chaos on British and European streets: we have seen arson, sabotage and many “other activities of this type” The head of British intelligence accuses Russia of participating in “dangerous activities carried out with increasing recklessness.” The motivation would be to hit countries that support Ukraine, but those actions are sometimes precise and sometimes poorly coordinated and downright botched. In all cases, the Kremlin denies involvement in any sabotage or terrorist activity in the United Kingdom or other European countries.

Magnesium

All of the packages that have come to light so far contained electrical items and containers of liquids. The high costs of shipping the packages were economically disproportionate to the value of the merchandise. In two of them there were very sophisticated massage devices. They had been filled with highly flammable magnesium.

On August 8, the Dresden Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into the container fire at the DHL logistics center in Leipzig, which has since been taken over by the Federal Prosecutor General’s Office. Officially, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office does not want to confirm it, but according to information from ARD and SWR, federal prosecutor Jens Rommel considers the incident as an act of special significance for internal security. This makes clear the seriousness with which the incidents are being taken, although, formally, they are only being investigated for arson and not yet for a possible background of the secret services. The federal prosecutor general comes into action when criminal offenses are directed against the Federal Republic of Germany.

According to German television stations ARD and SWR, the four packages in question had different senders and all were fake. The suspicion of sabotage, however, seems increasingly real. The case would fit a pattern that has already emerged several times in recent months. According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Russian intelligence services are increasingly turning to so-called “low-level agents”, including in connection with sabotage operations against Western countries that support Ukraine. This involves the recruitment of people with no background in the intelligence services or corresponding training, presumably with the aim of tasking them with carrying out sabotage operations in exchange for remuneration. This implies failures, but the intended effect of fueling uncertainty among the population is achieved. Furthermore, Russia could deny being responsible for an attack.

The recruitment of “low-level agents” also has to do with the fact that the network of the Russian secret services in the EU and the United Kingdom has been considerably reduced since numerous “camouflaged” employees of the secret services with diplomatic status They were expelled from Russian embassies in recent years.

“If the suspicion that this is a selective sabotage operation is confirmed, We are facing a very dramatic and serious incident. I hope that all security authorities and the judiciary will work hard to fully clarify the background,” said Konstantin von Notz (Green Party), chairman of the Bundestag’s Parliamentary Scrutiny Committee. For the moment, however, these are conjectures. .