Moscow targeted the head of German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall, a senior official with the US-led military bloc has claimed
FILE PHOTO. A general view of the Rheinmetall AG headquarters in Dusseldorf, Germany. © Getty Images / NurPhoto / Ying Tang A NATO official has claimed that Russia was behind a string of sabotage incidents and assassination plots across the bloc in recent years, including a supposed attempt to kill the head of German weapons manufacturer Rheinmetall. Speaking during a European Parliament committee meeting on hybrid warfare on Tuesday, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary-General for Innovation, Hybrid, and Cyber James Appathurai blamed Moscow for attacks on members of the US-led military bloc. “We have seen incidents of sabotage taking place across NATO countries over a period of the last couple of years, by which I mean derailment of trains, acts of arson, attacks on politicians’ property, plots to assassinate industry leaders, like publicly the head of Rheinmetall, but there were other plots as well,” Appathurai claimed without providing any evidence. The alleged plot against Armin Papperger, the head of the German arms manufacturer, was the only alleged assignation plot mentioned by Appathurai.
According to the official, Russia has been recruiting “criminal gangs or unwitting youth or migrants” to carry out sabotage in NATO states. While the alleged attacks are “generally crudely done,” they serve the goal of “creating disquiet to undermine support for Ukraine,” he claimed. The alleged plot against Papperger was originally reported by CNN last July. The broadcaster claimed the plan was foiled after US intelligence tipped off their German colleagues. The Rheinmetall boss himself neither confirmed nor denied the incident at the time, yet suggested CNN was unlikely to make things up. “I think CNN is not just looking up at the sky,” he told the Financial Times when reached for comment on the original report. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, stated the report lacked any substance and could not be taken seriously. “It is very hard for us to comment on reports from various media outlets that don’t contain any serious argumentation whatsoever, and are based on some anonymous sources,” Peskov said at the time.
