Several German officials called on Sunday to strengthen the security of national infrastructure in the aftermath of a large-scale railway sabotage, for which some evoke the Russian track in the context of the war in Ukraine.
According to the daily Bild, which says it has obtained a first analysis document from the national judicial police, the latter considers "
that a sabotage of state origin could be at the very least possible
".
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This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the sabotage - a cutting of strategic communication cables for trains which paralyzed traffic for three hours in the North - took place simultaneously in two different places on the network 540 kilometers apart, in the west and east of the country, according to the police document cited by Bild.
It is also, according to the newspaper, by "
the proximity
" to the recent leaks of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines observed in the Baltic Sea, about which the Swedish authorities also speak of sabotage.
Professionals who had inside information
According to other German media, the investigators are convinced that the railway sabotage on Saturday was the work of professionals who had information inside the national railway company.
At the same time, an act by a violent extreme left group is not excluded.
Some have attacked the rail network in the past.
It is the section of the Berlin police responsible for investigating acts threatening the state, such as attacks or espionage cases, which took over the investigations, according to the same sources.
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An official of the German environmentalist party, member of the government coalition of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Anton Hofreiter, also mentioned the hypothesis of Russian responsibility.
"
We cannot exclude that Russia is also behind the attack on the railway company
", he told the Funke press group, considering that the recent leaks from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea already bore "
the trail of the Kremlin
".
“
Perhaps in both cases it was a question of warnings because we support Ukraine
,” added the chairman of the committee of the chamber of deputies for European affairs.
Both Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 connect Russian gas fields to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
Gazprom recently halted deliveries citing technical problems.
For Berlin, this is a way to put pressure on Germany in the context of an energy "
war
" launched by Moscow against Europeans supporting Ukraine.
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After the attack on the railway company on Saturday, the environmentalist official called for the release of 20 billion euros to better protect critical infrastructure, strengthen the police and computer security.
German police have so far not publicly mentioned any particular leads after the incidents and massive delays on Saturday.
But the government quickly denounced sabotage.
“
It is clear that this is a targeted and deliberate action
,” said Transport Minister Volker Wissing.
hybrid warfare
A senior German military official also issued a warning on Sunday.
“
Every electrical transformer, every power station, every energy transmission pipe is a potential target
,” General Carsten Breuer warned in the daily Bild, speaking of
growing “
hybrid threats ”.
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For its part, the conservative opposition judged that “
irrespective of this case, we must rethink the security architecture of Germany and the European Union.
"The modern era marked by the conduct of hybrid warfare demands that we adapt our concepts," a party official of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, Thorsten Frei, told the RND press group.
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