Russia’s top domestic security agency said Tuesday that it has arrested a dual Russian German citizen accused of planning to blow up railway tracks in Nizhny Novgorod, a city some 280 miles (450 km) east of Moscow, on orders from Ukrainian intelligence.
The Federal Security Service, known under its acronym FSB, said that the man was arrested in the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod and an improvised explosive device was seized from him. It didn't identify the suspect.
German officials didn't have any immediate comment.
Ukraine's military intelligence and state security service did not comment either.
Russian officials have linked pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups with numerous attacks on railways aimed at disrupting supplies to the battle front in Ukraine since the war began in February 2022.
Ukraine's domestic spy agency has also been accused of detonating explosives on railway lines inside Russia.
Tuesday’s arrest follows the detention in October of another German national, Nikolai Gayduk, who was accused of planning to sabotage energy facilities. Gayduk was arrested as he entered Russia’s westernmost exclave of Kaliningrad from Poland.
Germany earlier this year played a central role in a major East-West prisoner swap in which Russia released US and German nationals it held in custody and a number of jailed Russian dissidents, while the US, Germany and some other European countries freed jailed Russians.
