Russia ready to provide support to citizen arrested in Germany

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The Russian Embassy in Berlin will provide legal assistance to a Russian national arrested among others for allegedly plotting a coup in Germany, an official said Thursday.

"On December 7, the official website of the German Prosecutor General's Office published reports on the detention of 22 people on suspicion of plotting a coup," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a press briefing in Moscow.

She said a Russian woman has been named on the list.

"The embassy promptly sent a request to the German agency for clarification of the circumstances of the detention of a Russian citizen. At the same time, the diplomatic mission expresses its readiness to provide her with the necessary consular and legal assistance," she added.

Zakharova said Moscow sees what happened "exclusively as an internal matter of Germany," adding that at the moment there is not enough information about the incident.

The German Federal Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday accused a group within the far-right Reichsbuerger Movement of plotting a coup.

One of the suspects was identified as Russian citizen Vitalia B. and the prosecutors have alleged that the group had contacted Russian diplomats in Germany to discuss their views on a new order.