Two alleged Russian spies arrested in Germany

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00:00 The German foreign ministry has summoned Russia's ambassador to Berlin following on from the

00:05 arrests of two German-Russian nationals who are suspected of spying for Moscow.

00:10 The duo, who were arrested in Bavaria, also stand accused of planning acts of sabotage

00:15 to undermine military support for Ukraine.

00:18 Russia is firmly rejecting these accusations and says that Germany has no evidence to back

00:22 them up.

00:23 France 24's Emerald Maxwell has this report.

00:29 The two German-Russian men, identified as Dieter S. and Alexander J., were arrested

00:34 in Germany's southeastern state of Bavaria on Wednesday in what prosecutors described

00:39 as a particularly serious case of espionage.

00:42 "We accuse one of the detainees of having agreed to commit acts of sabotage in Germany,

00:50 especially against military infrastructure and industrial sites here.

00:55 In preparation for this action, the suspect had already scouted out several potential

00:59 targets and according to our findings, he had passed on the information he had gathered

01:04 to a person connected to a Russian intelligence service."

01:11 Authorities identified this person as Dieter S. and said he'd been exchanging with the

01:15 Russian contact since October 2023, conspiring to commit arson or bomb attacks.

01:21 Alexander J. began assisting him in March of this year.

01:26 Prosecutors said the potential targets included a US army base in Bavaria.

01:32 Germany is Ukraine's second largest supplier of military aid after the US and authorities

01:37 say it's become a major target for Russian spying operations.

01:40 "Our security authorities have prevented possible explosive attacks that were intended to undermine

01:47 our military aid to Ukraine.

01:50 This is a particularly serious case of suspected agent activity for Vladimir Putin's criminal

01:56 regime.

01:57 We will continue to thwart such plans."

02:01 The German foreign minister tweeted "We will not allow Putin to bring his terror to Germany"

02:07 and said she'd summoned the Russian ambassador.

02:10 After the meeting, Russia said Germany had presented no evidence to support its claims.

02:16 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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