Weapons cache linked to Russia reportedly found near Berlin

German media outlets have reported that the security services have discovered a secret weapons cache near Berlin which is believed to have been set up on the orders of the Russian secret services.

Source: European Pravda, citing reporting by NDR and WDR, regional public broadcasters, and the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung

Details: According to the media reports, at the end of last summer security officials received information about a professionally set-up hiding place in Brandenburg, which borders the capital Berlin, and found two pistols there.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), believes the forest hideout was set up on the orders of the Russian secret services.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office is conducting an investigation, acting on the suspicion that a serious act of violence endangering the state was being plotted. A suspect has been detained in Romania.

The media reported that the weapons found had been disabled, and the cache was placed under surveillance, but this yielded no results. Media reports suggest the perpetrators likely realised they had been exposed.

The German security services are now convinced the weapons were being stored for agents who intended to carry out "kinetic operations" on Moscow's behalf in Germany, including assassinations.

Sinan Selen, President of the BfV, has been warning for several months that Russia could carry out attacks against specific individuals. The potential targets named include weapons manufacturers, exiled opposition figures and supporters of Ukraine.

Background:

• Earlier, Stefan Thumann, CEO of the German drone manufacturer Donaustahl, said he had been forced into hiding from the Russian secret services amid reports of an assassination plot.
• In the summer of 2024, CNN reported a foiled attempt by Russian secret services to kill Armin Papperger, CEO of German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall.
• In January 2025, NATO officially confirmed that Russia had intended to kill Papperger.

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