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German hard-right coup plotters were due to meet with a Russian diplomat before being arrested, it has emerged.
Three businessmen involved in eccentric aristocrat Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss’s plan to overthrow Germany’s government and replace it with a pro-Russian monarchy had been invited to a meeting at the Russian Consulate General in Leipzig on December 8 last year, public broadcaster MDR reported.
Police officers lead Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss to a vehicle during the raids in December.Credit: AP
But the meeting never took place because the trio were among 25 people arrested the day before across 11 German states over the coup plot.
Many of the 25 were members of the Reichsbuerger, or citizens of the German empire movement, authorities said.
Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss.Credit: worldwebforum 2019 Keynote Prinz Reuss
Police found printouts of an email exchange between the trio and the Russian consulate after a raid on one of the suspects’ houses in the Ore mountains on the German-Czech border.
In an email sent in late November, the trio expressed support for Russia and said they felt Moscow’s war in Ukraine was being unfairly portrayed in the media, MDR reported.
A high-ranking diplomat at the consulate, which is an official diplomatic outpost of the Russian government, reportedly wrote back two days later, inviting them to a face-to-face meeting at the Leipzig mission.
It was not clear from the email exchange why the diplomat wanted to meet the three men.
But leaders of the failed coup had repeatedly told supporters that they had had contact with Russian intelligence and were anticipating a signal of support from Russia for their planned revolution.
When the signal didn’t come, this led to frictions within the group, which included ex-military personnel.
The consulate in Leipzig had previously been visited by Prinz Reuss himself in June 2021 and several times by his Russian girlfriend, a woman identified by German prosecutors as Vitalia B.
She was among those arrested on December 7 and suspected of having attempted to facilitate contact between Prinz Reuss and Moscow.
The woman, who remains in custody, has since claimed her real name is Maria Romanov and argued she has been falsely imprisoned.
Investigators have said the plotters planned to storm the Reichstag parliament building in Berlin, arrest lawmakers and install aristocrat Prinz Reuss as leader of a new state.
The group planned to set up new departments of government and a new army with a “homeland protection company”, including some experienced members of the Bundeswehr armed forces.
Telegraph, London
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