Russia Plots to Assassinate Key European Industry Leaders, NATO Warns EU

NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary-General for Innovation, Hybrid, and Cyber, James Appathurai, briefed the EU Committee on Security and Defense hybrid warfare meeting on Jan. 28 of NATO’s assessment of Russian hybrid warfare attacks against the West.

He told the meeting that the July 2024 plot by Russia to kill Armin Papperger, the CEO of Rheinmetall was thought to be one of several aimed at European defense industry leaders. According to Politico, this was the first “on the record” confirmation of the thwarting of the assassination conspiracy by US and German intelligence agencies that had been widely reported by the media at the time.

Rheinmetall, the leading German defense company, has been a leading collaborator with Ukraine’s defense forces and industry. Not only has it been a key supplier of military equipment to Kyiv but has also established in-country equipment and weapons repair and manufacturing facilities, as Kyiv Post previously reported.

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Appathurai said Russia uses online recruitment, enlisting criminal networks, unwitting youth, or migrants to carry out sabotage and destabilization activities. While often crude in concept and execution and currently aimed at disrupting and undermining European support for Ukraine, Appathurai said that Moscow’s hybrid warfare campaign against the West is not just linked to the war in Ukraine.

He said it started well before the February 2022 invasion and would likely continue well beyond any peace settlement. He categorized it as part and parcel of the Kremlin’s strategic approach which integrates these acts with its wider political interference and infrastructure damage.

In his address to the meeting, Appathurai said the number of sabotage incidents against NATO countries, including arson, train derailments, attacks on politicians’ property, and attempts on the lives of key figures in the defense sector, were increasing. He said it was essential that there was a unified response to Moscow’s aggression and, citing the Dec. 12 speech by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, he called on Europe to adopt a “wartime mindset.”