Several German officials called on Sunday to tighten the security of national infrastructure after a large-scale rail sabotage, leading some to evoke the Russian track in the context of the war in Ukraine.
A link to the Nord Stream leaks?
According to the newspaper Imagewho claims to have obtained a first analysis document from the national judicial police, the latter considers “that at least a sabotage of state origin could be possible.”
This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the sabotage – a cut in strategic communication cables for trains that paralyzed traffic for three hours in the north – occurred simultaneously at two different points of the network separated by 540 kilometers, to the west and to the east of the country, according to the police document cited by Image.
It is also, according to the newspaper, due to “the proximity” to the recent leaks from the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines observed in the Baltic Sea, about which the Swedish authorities also speak of sabotage.
According to other German media, investigators are convinced that Saturday’s rail sabotage was the work of professionals who had inside information at the national railway company. At the same time, an act by a violent far-left group is not excluded. Some have attacked the rail network in the past.
Elected Officials Evoke Possible Russian ‘Warning’
It is the section of the Berlin police in charge of investigating acts that threaten the state, such as attacks or cases of espionage, which took charge of the investigations, according to the same sources.
An official from the German environmentalist party, a member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government coalition, Anton Hofreiter, also mentioned the hypothesis of Russian responsibility.
“Perhaps in both cases it was a warning because we support Ukraine,” added the chairman of the House of Representatives committee for European affairs.
Both Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 connect the Russian gas fields with Germany via the Baltic Sea.
A “deliberate” action according to the Minister of Transport
Gazprom recently stopped deliveries citing technical problems. For Berlin, it is a way of putting pressure on Germany as part of an energy “war” launched by Moscow against Europeans who support Ukraine.
So far, German police have not publicly mentioned any particular leads after the incidents and massive delays on Saturday.
A senior German military official also issued a warning on Sunday.
“Every electrical transformer, every power station, every power transmission pipeline is a potential target,” General Carsten Breuer warned in the newspaper. Imagetalking about the growing “hybrid threats”.
Source: BFM TV
