CNN reported on Friday that US intelligence successfully foiled a plot earlier this year to assassinate Rheinmetall’s CEO, Armin Papperger.
Rheinmetall is one of the world’s biggest producers of artillery and tank shells, supplying weaponry to Ukraine since the start of the war.
The Irish Times reports that the company is set to produce about 700,000 rounds of artillery next year, compared with just 70,000 in 2022.
Two senior US diplomats said the alleged conspiracy is being treated as part of a bigger Russian sabotage plan against European defense industry executives supporting Ukraine’s war effort, AFP writes.
Western intelligence agencies had identified several suspects linked to the plan against Papperger, according to the German weekly Spiegel.
The suspects came from countries of the former Soviet Union, including at least one Russian, Spiegel reported.
The men were believed to have traveled to the vicinity of the Dusseldorf headquarters of the company as well as Papperger’s travel destinations abroad, according to the magazine.
Security services believed the suspects were “proxies” for Russian intelligence, but the evidence against them was insufficient to make an arrest, according to Spiegel.
CNN quoted a high-level German government official as confirming that Germany was warned about the plot by the United States.
Papperger told the Financial Times that Berlin had established a “great level of security around my person.”
