A German-Russian citizen has been arrested by Russian police for allegedly preparing to "sabotage" a rail line on orders from Kyiv, the FSB security services said Tuesday, quoted by Russian news agencies.
The man, born in 2003, is accused of having "prepared the sabotage of a section of railway line in the city of Nizhny Novgorod with an explosive device" in return for a "financial reward" by Ukraine's SBU security service, the FSB statement said.
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It said "means of communication" found at the suspect's home had shown messages exchanged with an SBU "representative".
The arrest comes several weeks after another German citizen, identified as Nikolai Gaiduk, was arrested in the northwestern Kaliningrad region on charges of sabotaging energy installations.
He is alleged to have received the explosive material and orders to carry out the attack from a Ukrainian citizen living in Hamburg, according to the FSB.
A source at the German foreign ministry said the German embassy in Moscow had "received information about the arrest of a presumed German national and is trying to gain consular access".
But the same source noted that "dual nationals are treated by Russia as exclusively Russian nationals and therefore consular access is normally denied".
Since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, there has been a spike in authorities charging people with sabotage, treason and terrorism, including several Westerners.
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On November 20, Germany's foreign ministry said it knew of at least a dozen cases of German nationals imprisoned in Russia.
The German foreign ministry source said "the threat of arrests in Russia is very high, including for German nationals".
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