According to the newspaper New York Times (NYT)Residents of Großenhain, Germany, opposed the construction of an ammunition factory in Ukraine, fearing a reaction from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Rheinmetall, Germany’s best-known manufacturer of military equipment and weapons, was considering building a new facility in Großenhain to meet the “increase in demand” from Ukraine. However, city residents refused to support this project.
Sixteen of the twenty-two members of the Grossenhain city council called for the facility project to be blocked in a letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Some Grossenhain residents fear the facility would anger President Putin, who served as a KGB agent for nearly five years near Dresden, and turn their town into a military target.
“He knows exactly where the airport is,” Kerstin Lauterbach, a Left Party city councilwoman who led efforts to protest the facility, said of Putin.
Today, the 360-acre airport, East Germany’s largest industrial estate, is home to warehouses and a small flying club, but old Soviet helicopters and planes still line the sides of the runways.
The article draws attention to the difference between Berlin’s perspective and the political reality on the ground.
Recently, there was also a protest in Germany against support for Ukraine, initiated by activists of the Querdenker movement affiliated with the opposition right-wing Alternative for Germany Party (AfD).
Previously in Germany sorted extremist youth organization “Alternatives for Germany”.