Morning Briefing Plus: Zeitenwende with silencer
The next crisis is not coming with a bang: A drone at the airport, disinformation before elections and low water levels on the Rhine show how quietly dangers challenge Germany.
Berlin. A drone loaded with explosives was discovered at one of Germany's strategically most important airports. Furthermore, Russia could be behind a campaign to influence German state elections. And while all this is happening, the Rhine River is dropping to historically low levels. These are violent events that are relatively quietly slipping into the summer break republic.
In doing so, they tell us a lot about what Germany may face this autumn - and far beyond. For example, Leipzig Airport is an important transshipment point and is used by Ukrainian and NATO aircraft. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) spoke of a hybrid attack scenario that is based on highly professional perpetrators.
He does not rule out "foreign powers" as the masterminds. However, the authorities have so far refrained from identifying Russia as the originator, citing ongoing investigations. At the same time, the defense against such attacks is coming into focus, as it is obvious that Germany is poorly prepared for this, as capital correspondent Frank Specht explains in his comment.
As is often the case, however, the debate initially leads to a squabble over which institution is responsible at all and when.
Translated by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's report; automated translation may contain errors. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
