German interior minister announces high threat of terrorist attacks in country

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt announced the risk of possible terrorist attacks in the country.
"The increase in the number of reports and intelligence data prompted me to move the previously stated abstract threat into the category of high threat. This is not yet a specific, but already a high threat. And this means that in Germany at any moment there is a risk of terrorist acts being committed," Dobrindt said in an interview with the newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

He claimed that plans for attacks on Germany "are clearly traceable - and not only against German infrastructure, but also against individuals or institutions." "Quite recently, together with foreign agencies, we thwarted the preparation of a terrorist attack using explosives, which low-ranking agents, so-called disposable agents, planned to carry out," the minister stated. At the same time, the head of the German Interior Ministry noted that from the very beginning of his tenure in office he had stated that legislation in the security sphere would be modernized in Germany - including with an eye to investigative methods.
"My goal is to turn counterintelligence agencies into full-fledged special services in order to be competitive and capable of full-fledged partnership with friendly foreign agencies. For this, in the future they will receive operational powers and capabilities, but exclusively in cases where it is impossible to use police measures to achieve the goals," Dobrindt summarized. He explained that the detention of people remains the task of the police, however "in the event of the need to repel an acute terrorist threat and in the absence of access to police forces, employees of the agency for the protection of the constitution will be able to take such measures as searches in residential premises or interference in the operation of the offender's tools."
Dobrindt stated that "Germany is daily in the sights of foreign powers trying to cause damage." "Regarding attacks on energy and railway infrastructure, we currently cannot prove the presence of a Russian trace," he said, answering the question "what is the probability that Russia is behind the actions of the saboteurs."
Source: TASS