exclusive
A Russian opposition member is suspected of having planned an attack on a house in Berlin where employees of a Kremlin-affiliated news agency are said to live. The Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office is now filing charges.
On May 6, 2022, a few weeks after the Russian attack on Ukraine, the police were called to a residential and office building on Lepsiusstrasse in Berlin-Steglitz. A resident reported to officers that a bottle had been thrown at the house. The police found a broken window pane. When inspecting the property, the police found a self-made incendiary device in a light well.
The “unconventional explosive and incendiary device”, USBV for short, was defused by the Berlin police. For a year, the State Criminal Police Office investigated on behalf of the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office. Although nobody was harmed, it was clear from the start that the investigations were politically highly sensitive: The house is used by employees of the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, and it belongs to the Russian state. Charges are now being brought against one of the suspects.
Sharp criticism of Putin
In the course of the investigation, according to information from ARD-capital studio, SWR, rbb and tagesschau.de The focus is on a man who the investigators are convinced is responsible for the crime: Dimitrij B., a Russian national who has lived in Germany since the 1990s.
He has been in custody for half a year. B. is not a blank slate: he is considered a Russian opposition member who has repeatedly publicly criticized the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin in particular in the past. B. founded an association called UnKremlin eV with other Russian members of the opposition in Germany, of which he is the chairman.
He organized protest events against Putin and Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine in front of the Chancellery and the Russian Embassy in Berlin. Before the war, he held a rally to protest the imprisonment of Russian regime critic Alexei Navalny.
Charge of attempted homicide
B. is now looking for information ARD-capital studio, SWR, rbb and tagesschau.de accused as a suspect by the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office of an attempted homicide. The indictment is based on a chain of circumstantial evidence: B’s mobile phone and the SIM card in his car are said to have been found several times near the scene of the crime by means of a radio cell evaluation. However, it is unclear how long the explosive device was in the house before it was discovered – possibly for weeks.
The investigators assume that it was placed there in April and also think they know on which night. Traces of DNA from B. are said to have been found on the explosive device. Material used to build the explosive device is said to have been seized by investigators during a search of B’s apartment.
victim of one intelligence operation?
B. denies the allegations. His lawyer confirmed ARD-capital studio, SWR, rbb and tagesschau.de, the cell phone and the car belonged to his client. However, he regularly provided them to refugees from Ukraine, whom he let stay in his apartment. Among them was apparently a provocateur who wanted to blame him for the crime. B. sees himself as a victim of a Russian secret service operation.
However, no concrete evidence of this could be found in the course of the investigation. It is unclear why the explosive device did not detonate. The USBV was shot at with water during the defusing and damaged. However, investigators are convinced that it was not a dummy.
Strict secrecy
Due to the sensitive political background, the investigations were conducted under strict secrecy. According to reports, the investigators fear that B. could become the target of acts of revenge.
Since a killer on behalf of the Russian state shot and killed a Georgian of Chechen origin in the Kleiner Tiergarten in Berlin in 2019, the security authorities have considered targeted killings ordered by Moscow to be conceivable.
“The indictment shows that here in Berlin, the federal capital, we are reacting to developments that the war of aggression against Ukraine brings with it, in all areas, including in the area of criminal prosecution,” said Berlin Justice Senator Felor Badenberg on request. “As in the case of the murder in Kleiner Tiergarten, committed and professional investigative work is the key to solving and prosecuting crimes and deterring people from committing similar crimes.”