San Francisco Frontiers - Germany offers 1 mn euro reward for Berlin blackout culprits

The electricity outage left roughly 45,000 homes and 2,200 businesses without power for nearly a week in the middle of winter in the southwest of the German capital.

Police are hunting members of the far-left "Vulkangruppe" (Volcano Group), which claimed responsibility for the early January blackout in several online statements.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Tuesday vowed to "strike back".

"I think it's appropriate to underscore the seriousness of the situation with a reward of this magnitude," he said.

According to Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency, the group has been active since 2011 and is also believed to be behind a number of arson attacks in and around Berlin.

It claimed responsibility for two sabotage attacks targeting a Telsa electric car factory just outside Berlin.

Dobrindt said police would launch a publicity campaign to solicit tips and tout the reward, including leaflets and posters in Berlin's subway system.

Dobrindt, a conservative ally of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, also vowed to put more resources into fighting "left-wing extremism" more broadly and urged greater police powers to use facial recognition technology and collect digital data.

- Critical infrastructure -

The outage caused by a fire targeting a set of high-voltage cables starkly revealed gaps in the security of critical infrastructure in the capital at a time when Germany worries about sabotage attacks blamed on Russia.

Berlin officials also came under fire over the speed and scope of their response to the blackout, which came during a spell of cold winter weather.

For several years, Germany has faced what officials describe as a Russian campaign of sabotage, espionage and disinformation aimed at destabilising the country, a major supplier of military aid to Ukraine and a key NATO logistics hub.

Moscow has denied the allegations.

Dobrindt on Tuesday promised that this week the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, would adopt a new law aimed at better protecting critical infrastructure.

But the initial draft of the legislation, which has been awaited for months and incorporates EU mandates, has already faced criticism from some in the energy sector and business community as too bureaucratic to be effective.

Some have also warned that the legislation risks mandating excessive transparency about vital infrastructure facilities, which could be exploited by malicious actors.

Dobrindt acknowledged that "we already disclose too much public information about our critical infrastructure".

F.Garcia--SFF