Russian authorities arrest dual Russian German citizen on sabotage accusations

MOSCOW — Russia’s top domestic security agency said Tuesday that it has arrested a dual Russian German citizen accused of planning to blow up railway tracks on orders from Ukrainian intelligence.

The Federal Security Service, known under its acronym FSB, said that the man was arrested in the Volga River city of Nizhny Novgorod and an improvised explosive device was seized from him. It didn’t identify the suspect.

German officials didn’t have any immediate comment.

The arrest follows the detention in October of another German national, Nikolai Gayduk, who was accused of planning to sabotage energy facilities. Gayduk was arrested as he entered Russia’s westernmost exclave of Kaliningrad from Poland.

Germany earlier this year played a central role in a major East-West prisoner swap in which Russia released U.S. and German nationals it held in custody and a number of jailed Russian dissidents, while the U.S., Germany and some other European countries freed jailed Russians.