Counter-terrorism probe amid fears of Vladimir Putin spy plot | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Russian spies are feared to have planted a tool on a aircraft that sparked a fireplace in a British warehouse.

Counter-terrorism police are investigating a blaze at a DHL warehouse in Birmingham amid fears of a rising variety of Kremlin-sponsored sabotage plots.

Nobody was injured within the fireplace, in July, earlier than it was put out.

But an identical incident in Leipzig, Germany, has sparked fears it’s a part of a wider Russian marketing campaign to hold out arson and sabotage plots in Europe.

This is primarily to weaken navy help for Ukraine and divide the West, it’s understood.

A Metropolitan police counter-terrorism spokesperson stated: “We can confirm that officers from counter-terrorism policing are investigating an incident at a commercial premises in Midpoint Way, Minworth.

“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.

“Officers 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.”

Seven males had been charged over a suspected Russian plot when a warehouse in east London belonging to an organization linked to Ukraine caught fireplace in a suspected arson assault in March.

Logistics firm DHL stated the package deal that began burning in Germany was initially posted from Lithuania.

It was moments away from being loaded right into a aircraft, which might have triggered a disaster, German intelligence chiefs warned.

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum stated Russia and Iran are on a mission to trigger “mayhem” with a rise in arson, homicide, kidnap and sabotage conspiracies.

The menace Moscow poses on Britain’s streets is “getting worse”, he warned.

Mr McCallum stated Russia’s GRU intelligence company, which was chargeable for the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury in 2018, is behind the “sustained mission”, including that Putin’s “henchmen” are ramping up arson and sabotage operations throughout Europe “in the misguided hope of weakening Western resolve”.

Britain’s high intelligence officer stated Russia and Iran are hiring criminals to hold out their “dirty work” and performing with “increasing recklessness”.

At least 24 alleged saboteurs have been arrested up to now this yr after being recruited by Russian spy chiefs.

A wave of fires at arms factories and military-related industrial websites within the West has alarmed intelligence chiefs. Suspected plots have been detected in London, Germany, the Czech Republic and Sweden.

Mr McCallum, talking on the Counter Terrorism Operations Centre in west London on Tuesday, stated: “In just the last year, the number of state threat investigations we’re running has shot up by 48 percent.

“The more eye-catching shift this year has been Russian state actors turning to proxies for their dirty work, including private intelligence operatives and criminals from both the UK and third countries.

“While altering MI5’s detection challenge, Russia’s use of proxies further reduces the professionalism of their operations, and – absent diplomatic immunity – increases our disruptive options.”

Britain should “count on to see continued acts of aggression right here at residence” from Russia.