It turns out that Russia was behind a spate of “incendiary devices” which “ignited in Germany and the United Kingdom.” Those incidents happened in July and were allegedly “part of a covert Russian operation that aimed to start fires aboard cargo and passenger flights heading to the U.S. and Canada.” The test runs didn’t go quite as well as the Kremlin had expected.
Russia mailing bombs
Russia is apparently behind a string of “device explosions at DHL logistics hubs in Leipzig, Germany, and Birmingham, U.K.” Wall Street Journal broke the news on Monday, November 4, but the public had to wait until someone else reported on it.
That’s because WSJ is behind a paywall. A DHL spokesperson notes that the company is “aware of two recent incidents involving shipments in our network.” They are also “cooperating with the relevant authorities.”
Russia seems to have a sense of humor, too. They booby trapped a few shipments of vibrators. “The devices, which were reportedly electric massagers implanted with a magnesium-based flammable substance, were sent to the U.K. from Lithuania.” You’ll have a hot time with one of those.
Intelligence officials say they “appear to have been a test run to figure out how to get such incendiary devices aboard planes bound for North America.”
On Tuesday, Vladimir Putin’s trained attack squirrel, Dmitry Peskov, held a news conference to deny everything. The Kremlin is furious with WSJ for reporting “unintelligible hoaxes which are never supported by any credible information.”
Russia would never do something like that, he insists. U.S. officials aren’t pressing the issue. All they will say is that “at this time, there is no current active threat targeting U.S.-bound flights.”
Arrests in Poland
As recently as October, Polish authorities note “four people had been arrested under suspicion of being involved in international sabotage and a sabotage group.”
Without specifically naming Russia, the press release explains that “parcels containing camouflaged explosives and dangerous materials” were sent via courier to the U.K. and European Union countries. The only reason anyone found out about them is because they went off too soon. A few “spontaneously ignited or detonated during land and air transport.”
That means back to the drawing board for Russia. Poland adds that the group’s goal “was (also) to test the transfer channel for this type of shipments which were ultimately to be sent to the United States of America and Canada.”
One of those tests failed in Birmingham, England. According to British counter-terrorism police, “On Monday, 22 July, a package at the location caught alight. It was dealt with by staff and the local fire brigade at the time and there were no reports of any injuries or significant damage caused.”
While that investigation is ongoing, the spokesperson relates that they are “liaising with other European law enforcement partners to identify whether this may or may not be connected to any other similar-type incidents across Europe.”
Also in July, CNN was reporting that “Russia has been engaged in a ‘bold‘ sabotage operation across NATO’s member states for more than six months, targeting the supply lines of weapons for Ukraine and the decision-makers behind it.” They claim “a senior NATO official” told them that.
