Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has arrested a German citizen suspected of planning to sabotage energy facilities in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, state-owned news agency TASS reported on Wednesday.
TASS, quoting the FSB, named the suspect as 57-year-old Nikolay Gaiduk, who was detained after entering Russia from Poland.
The FSB alleged that Gaiduk was also involved in the March explosion of a pipeline at a gas distribution station in Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.
Officials said they had found half a litre of liquid explosives while inspecting his car, and alleged that he was on his way to commit further sabotage on energy infrastructure in the region, according to TASS.
Gaiduk has now been charged with “committing a terrorist act” and smuggling explosives. State-owned channel Russia-24 aired video footage in which Gaiduk is seen to confess to the acts, saying he was commissioned to carry out the attack by a Ukrainian citizen based in the city of Hamburg, where both men now live.
Russian independent media outlet Agentstvo said Gaiduk was a Greco-Roman wrestling coach from the Ukrainian city of Konotop, in the northeastern Sumy region. He is thought to have relatives in Russia and to have been living in Germany since 2018.