Thursday, February 6
“Be Greener!” Climate sabotage in Berlin… by Russian agents?
On December 11 last year, police in Schönefeld, just outside Berlin, stopped an Opel van with a suspicious license plate. Inside, they found three young men—aged 20, 18, and 17—who appeared to be tradesmen. They carried ID cards from Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Germany. The only unusual cargo? Several cartridges of construction foam, the kind typically used to seal window frames. Finding nothing overtly suspicious, the officers let them go.
By the next morning, however, police had their hands full. Dozens of criminal complaints had poured in. Not far from where the van had been stopped, 43 cars had been disabled overnight – each with construction foam sprayed into the exhaust pipe, rendering them un-drivable. As a final touch, the vehicles were plastered with stickers reading “Be Greener!” next to a beaming photo of Germany’s Economic Minister Robert Habeck (Greens).
The media wasted no time pointing fingers. Bild led the way, condemning radical climate activists. However, something seemed amiss. Rather than attacking SUVs in wealthy neighbourhoods, these people had targeted relatively low cost vehicles. And now, according to Spiegel, it appears the whole thing may have been a “false flag” operation orchestrated by Russian security services.
German intelligence sources allege the stunt was designed to stir up resentment against the Greens—especially against their candidate for chancellor, Habeck. The three alleged saboteurs were reportedly recruited online and paid several thousand euros to disable cars across the country, leaving incriminating stickers behind. Spiegel suggests this is part of a new Russian strategy: outsourcing intelligence operations instead of relying on professional spies.
Even espionage, it seems, isn’t safe from neoliberal cost-cutting.
