Russia arrests German citizen on charges of planning to bomb energy facility in Kaliningrad

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) – The Russian intelligence service has arrested a German citizen who allegedly had explosives to carry out a terrorist attack on an energy facility in Kaliningrad, a coastal city along the Baltic Sea.

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement on Wednesday that a German citizen with a Ukrainian name, Nikolay Gaiduk, 57, arrived in Russia from Poland and was also suspected of committing another crime — organizing an explosion at a power plant in Russia's city of Kaliningrad in March 2024.

"Gaiduk was detained upon entering the territory of the Kaliningrad region from the Republic of Poland for organizing sabotage activities at energy facilities. 0.5 liters of liquid explosive were seized in his Ford Focus with German registration plates HC 5305," the FSB said.

According to the investigators, Gaiduk was sent by a Ukrainian citizen, Alexander Anatolyevich Zhorov, who was born in 1967, lives in Hamburg, and has a German residence permit.

The FSB said it is conducting an investigation to determine whether other people were involved in the attack's planning.