Germany blames Russia for airport drone incident, hits back with sanctions

Germany has accused Russia of carrying out a hybrid attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport last month. A drone with a detonator was found near a Ukrainian transport plane on August 5. The German government said it had concluded that Russia was responsible for the attempted attack, citing police investigations, patterns of attack, and intelligence findings.

In response, Germany will close Russia's consulate general in Bonn on September 18 and cancel the contract for the Russian House, a cultural centre in Berlin. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also announced that Germany would propose listing more Russian individuals for European Union sanctions and tighten entry controls for Russian nationals. The European Union expressed full solidarity with Germany, and NATO assured that it would defend its members.

The Russian ambassador to Berlin, Sergei Nechayev, rejected the accusations as unsubstantiated and absurd, warning that they would not be without consequences. Germany's Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt stated that the perpetrators and organizers of the hybrid attack acted on behalf of Russia. According to The Insider, under a Russian-German intergovernmental agreement, the work of the Russian House in the German capital is directly tied to the activity of the Goethe-Institut in Russia.

Brief written by urgent.news from France 24, The Insider, Free Malaysia Today — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.