Spanish cops apprehended a pensioner Wednesday on suspicion he sent letter bombs targeting the prime minister and the Ukrainian embassy, authorities said.The 74-year-old Spanish person was collared in Miranda de Ebro in northern Spain with investigators searching his home where he was believed to have made 6 letter bombs, cops and the interior ministry said.Masked authorities stood on guard outside the property as officers with sniffer pets browsed the interior, Spanish TV footage showed.
This individual was really active on socials media and according to National Police detectives, he has technical and computer system knowledge, an interior ministry declaration said.
Although it is presumed that the detainee made and sent the explosive gadgets alone, the cops do not rule out the involvement or influence of other individuals.
Nobody was eliminated by the six letter bombs sent out in late November and early December to numerous websites in Spain, however a Ukrainian embassy staff member was gently hurt while opening one of the bundles.
Letters were sent out to the main house of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, to Spains defense ministry and to an air base near Madrid from which Spain has actually sent out weapons to Ukraine.Also targeted was a military equipment company in the northeastern city of Zaragoza which makes grenade launchers that Spain has actually sent to Ukraine.After its Madrid embassy was targeted, Kyiv ramped up security at its embassies worldwide.
Paramilitary trainingThe arrest followed a weekend report in the New York Times which said Russian military intelligence officers had directed associates of a white supremacist militant group based in Russia to carry out the project in Spain.
US officials informed the paper that the Russian officers who directed the campaign appeared intent on keeping European federal governments off guard and might be evaluating out proxy groups in case Moscow decides to escalate a conflict.
Investigators think the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), an extreme group with members and associates across Europe, is behind the letter bomb campaign.The group-- which is designated an international terrorist organization by the United States-- is thought to have ties to Russian intelligence companies.
Important members of the group have actually been in Spain, and the authorities there have tracked its ties with far-right Spanish companies, the paper said.According to Stanford Universitys Center for International Security and Cooperation, RIM keeps contacts with neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups throughout Europe.
The group has offered paramilitary training to Russian nationals and members of similar organizations from other nations at its centers in St.
Petersburg, it added.Terrorist techniquesAfter the embassy attack, Ukraines ambassador to Spain, Serhii Pohoreltsev, appeared to point the finger at Russia.
We are aware of the terrorist approaches of the aggressor nation, he told Spanish public television on Nov.
30 just hours after the incident.
Russias Embassy to Spain condemned the letter bomb campaign.After congratulating cops on the arrest, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska stated investigators were looking at all possibilities.
Private tv La Sexta, which initially broke the news of the pensioners arrest, stated the suspect was a former regional authority employee in Vitoria, a town in northern Spain, who lived alone.Following the letter bomb campaign, Spains National Court opened an investigation into terrorism.
In addition to sending arms to Ukraine in its fight versus Russias almost year-long war, Spain is also training Ukrainian troops as part of a European Union program and offering humanitarian aid.