The leak of German army talks on Ukraine raises tension between Berlin and Moscow |

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 Crimean 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, to complain this Monday.

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. In the 38-minute audio, German officers are heard talking about a possible shipment of Taurus missiles to Ukraine and a possible attack by kyiv on the Kerch Bridge, which connects mainland Russia with Crimea.

Russia is trying 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. “This demonstrates once again the direct involvement of the Western collective in the conflict around Ukraine,” Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, said this Monday, reports from Moscow. Javier G. Cuesta. The Kremlin considers that its accusations are 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 TodayMargarita Simonián, close to Moscow’s ruling elite.

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.” It is a message similar to that offered the day before 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,” he declared on Sunday, a day after the Defense Ministry confirmed that a German Air Force conversation had been intercepted.

German politicians 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,” Pistorius said about the publication of the conversations, shortly after the funeral of the opponent Alexei Navalny. In his view, Putin’s goal is to divert attention from domestic politics, while fueling more fears and unrest about Russia in Germany and the West.

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 the need to confront cyber attacks, espionage and disinformation. .

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 the conversation among senior army commanders discusses its viability.

“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.

“This is something that I have made very clear. “I am the chancellor,” he added regarding the criticism of his refusal to send missiles with a 500-kilometer range, with which targets in Moscow could be reached 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, The mirror He points 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 it is one that Putin believes he can influence and influence. This is demonstrated by the leak about the Taurus, unusual even by Russian standards,” adds the German weekly.

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

“Attempts to present the conversation of German army officers as a game of rockets and tanks are a malicious lie. “Germany is preparing for war with Russia,” the vice president of the Russian Security Council, Dmitri Medvedev, wrote on his social networks. The man who presided over Russia between 2008 and 2012 has also followed the Kremlin’s usual script to sow doubt within European politicians by suggesting that the German chancellery is controlled by the military. “One day they will come to Scholz and say: “Mr. Reich, a missile was shot down in Ukraine. According to its type and trajectory, it was flying to Berlin.” “How will Scholz respond, eh?” he 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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