German government demands trust in handling of Leipzig drone incident

Lawmakers from Germany's governing coalition rejected opposition demands on Thursday for it to present evidence that Moscow is behind last month's failed airport drone attack.

Berlin has officially blamed Russia after an explosives-laden drone was discovered at Leipzig Airport near Ukrainian cargo aircraft on August 4 - a failed attack that Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said was "not an isolated incident." 

Sebastian Fiedler, the interior policy spokesman for the Social Democrats in parliament, stressed that the public prosecutor's office was in charge of the proceedings. 

To allow the investigation to conclude successfully, he said, "you don't release detailed pieces of evidence to the public along the way - they belong in a court afterwards." 

The comments came during a special session in parliament, requested by the Greens to receive new insights on the threat posed by Russia and on German countermeasures.

Moscow denies being behind the Leipzig incident, with Russian President Vladimir Putin describing Germany's response as a "serious mistake." 

"Where is the evidence?" Putin had asked.

Fiedler called on the opposition to trust the government on this point. 

"You can be sure that when the chancellor, when the interior minister stands before the press and says this was Russia and there is no doubt - and I explicitly concur with this - then it was Russia," he said.

Several politicians of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) had expressed doubt, demanding that the government provide not just indications but proof.

Alexander Throm, interior policy spokesman for the conservatives in parliament, countered that by calling for evidence, extremist parties such as the AfD were "playing the exact same game as Putin, right down to the same choice of words." 

Lawmakers from the Greens and The Left accused the government of failing to keep them adequately informed about findings relating to the failed attack.