The leak of a conversation between senior German Army officials about the possible shipment of Taurus missiles to Ukraine and their use to attack the Crimea bridge – the Ukrainian peninsula occupied by Russia – has increased tension between Russia and Germany. Berlin accuses Moscow of launching an “information war” and warns that this “hybrid attack” seeks to divide European partners. Russia, for its part, maintains that Germany is preparing for war and its Foreign Ministry summoned the German ambassador, Alexander Lambsdorff, this Monday to complain. Moscow has taken advantage of this leak to provoke misgivings among the German political class and its senior leaders at a time when Europe is debating whether it should take more decisive steps against the threat of Russian expansionism.
Russia's main objective is to demonstrate that Germany has become a party to the war and is deeply involved in the conflict, something that the German government categorically denies. From Moscow they believe that this is proven with the content of the conversation leaked from Russia last Friday, bluntly and without disguising the source of the audio, by the editor-in-chief of the Russian state channel Russia Today, Margarita Simonián, considered a trusted person in the Kremlin. A spokesman for the German Executive this Monday criticized Russia's strategy, which he considers aimed at dividing: “This incident, this hybrid attack, aims to create insecurity and divide us, and that is precisely what we are not going to allow. We are in permanent contact with our partners and maintain a very fluid dialogue.â€
This is a message similar to that offered the previous day by the German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, who considers that what the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, seeks with this leak is to “destabilize Germany.” “It is part of an information war that Putin is waging. There is no doubt about it,†he declared on Sunday, a day after the Ministry of Defense confirmed that a German Air Force conversation had been intercepted.
“It is a hybrid attack aimed at disinformation. It's about division. “It's about undermining our resolve,” he added about the 38-minute audio in which German officers are heard talking about a possible shipment of Taurus missiles to Ukraine and a possible attack by Kiev on the Kerch bridge, which connects the Mainland Russia with Crimea.
German politicians, for their part, believe that the publication was planned precisely, two weeks before the elections in Russia, in which Putin is running and will likely be re-elected president in the absence of rivals. “No one seriously believes that it is a coincidence,” said Pistorius in relation to the publication of the conversations, shortly after the funeral of the opponent Alexei Navalni. In his view, Putin's goal is to draw attention away from domestic politics, while fueling more fears and unrest about Russia in Germany and the West.
The leak has upset the Kremlin, reports from Moscow Javier G. Cuesta. “This demonstrates once again the direct involvement of the Western collective in the conflict around Ukraine,” Putin's spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, said this Monday.
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Communications security gap
The leak has unleashed a wave of criticism from the German Government parties and the opposition, which have warned of a structural security problem in the German Government's communications and of the need to confront cyberattacks, espionage and misinformation.
For now, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has limited himself to promising an “exhaustive” investigation of a matter that he considers “very serious”, but without wanting to go into more details, and to insist on his refusal to a possible shipment of Taurus missiles to Ukraine, no matter how much their feasibility is debated in the conversation among senior Army commanders.
“You can't deliver a weapons system that goes very far and not think about how you can have control over the weapons system. And if you want to have control, that is only possible if German soldiers participate, something that is totally out of place,” Scholz declared this Monday in a brief meeting with the media within the framework of a visit to a training school. professional.
“This is something I have made very clear. I am the chancellor and this is what applies,†he added about the criticism of his refusal to send missiles that have a range of 500 kilometers and with which they could reach targets in Moscow from Ukraine. In Scholz's opinion, the shipment of these weapons could mean that Germany ends up being part of the war, a risk that the German chancellor is not willing to take.
However, from German media such as The mirror They point out that although many in Berlin, including Scholz himself, do not want to hear it, “Germany has long been a war adversary for the Kremlin. And he is one that Putin believes he can influence and influence. This is demonstrated by the leak about the Taurus, unusual even by Russian standards.
The German Interior Ministry warned some time ago that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, there has been a clear increase in disinformation in Germany, for which Moscow is responsible. “The goal of the Russian government is to influence German public opinion, divide society and weaken Germany,†he said.
Reactions in Russia
Peskov, for his part, has put forward two hypotheses about the nature of the leaks. “We have to find out if the Bundeswehr (the German army) does it on its own initiative or not. In that case, the question is to what extent the Bundeswehr is manageable and whether Mr. Scholz controls the situation, or whether this is part of German state policy,” Peskov said. “Both options are very bad.†.
For his part, the vice president of the Russian Security Council, Dmitri Medvedev, has also spoken out. “Attempts to present the conversation of Bundeswehr officers as a game of rockets and tanks are a malicious lie. Germany is preparing for war with Russia,†he has written on his social networks. The senior official has also followed the Kremlin's manual to sow doubt within European politicians by insinuating that the German Chancellery is controlled by the military. “One day they will come to Scholz and tell him: “Herr Reich (chancellor), a missile was shot down in Ukraine. According to his type and trajectory, he was flying towards Berlinâ€. How will Scholz respond, eh?†the former Russian president also added.
However, Medvedev himself appeared this Monday at a forum where he spoke openly about Russian expansionist plans. Dressed in a blue jumpsuit similar to that of one of James Bond's enemies, Doctor No, he stressed that Russia “will not give up its lands” in front of a map in which Moscow occupies almost all of Ukraine and part of Moldova, including Transnistria. “Our president has been precise about our borders: Russia's borders do not end anywhere,” Medvedev said after unleashing a loud applause from those in attendance. “A Ukrainian leader once said: Ukraine is not part of Russia. That idea must disappear forever. Ukraine is part of Russia†he added.
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