Weapons for Putin's agents? Secret arms cache found in Berlin forest

By Lena Roche

Published on 21/08/2026 - 11:23 GMT+2

In a forest near Berlin, officials have discovered a cache containing highly sensitive material. According to information obtained by WDR, NDR and the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), two live firearms were stored in the professionally set-up depot.

Who placed them there? Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), is reported to have indications that it is a hideout used by Russian security services. It is a secret drop site for materials and information, known only to the sender and recipient and referred to among agents as a "dead letterbox".

German security authorities now assume that the weapons were left for agents who, acting on behalf of Moscow, were to carry out so-called "kinetic operations", in other words acts of physical violence.

The head of the domestic intelligence service, Sinan Selen, warned months ago that Russia could carry out assassinations. Possible targets, he said, include defence industry managers, opposition figures in exile and supporters of Ukraine.

Russian embassy remains silent so far

The request that NDR, WDR and SZ sent to the Russian embassy has so far gone unanswered. In the past, similar accusations have been dismissed by the Russian embassy as conspiracy theories. It insists there are no "hybrid attacks" by Moscow on Germany.