Panic across the Rhine! Visiting Rome this Saturday, March 2, Chancellor Olaf Scholz was caught up in domestic affairs. After the leak of a recording of German army officers discussing confidential material about the war in Ukraine, the head of state mentioned a “very serious matter” which will be the subject of an “investigation very thorough, very thorough and very fast.” In the process, the German Ministry of Defense confirmed that exchanges between officers had indeed been “intercepted”, without being able yet “to say with certainty whether modifications were made to the recorded or transcribed version circulating on social networks” .
The German army, the Bundeswehr, said it was investigating suspicions of illegal wiretapping of exchanges between several of its high-ranking officers concerning arms deliveries to Ukraine. These conversations were broadcast on social networks in Russia on Friday and their content is potentially very embarrassing for Berlin. “We are examining whether communications linked to the air force have been tapped, military counter-espionage (BAMAD) has taken all necessary measures,” a spokesperson told AFP. of the Ministry of Defense.
Russia is rubbing its hands. The editor-in-chief of the Russian state channel RT, Margarita Simonian, published a file lasting more than half an hour, presenting it as an exchange between German soldiers discussing strikes targeting Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014. Among the participants in this conversation: Air Force Chief Ingo Gerhartz.
Embarrassing exchanges for Berlin
On the recording, everyone talks about the possibility of Germany delivering long-range Taurus missiles to kyiv. The group wonders how Ukrainian forces might use them and attempts to define their possible impact. During the conversation, military officials also discussed possible targets if their country supplied the missiles with a range of more than 500 kilometers, including the Kerch Bridge linking Russia and occupied Crimea, according to reports.
Participants also discuss details of deliveries of long-range Scalp missiles by France and Great Britain to Ukraine. This part of the file is one of the most embarrassing for Berlin, because it reveals secrets of allied countries. Olaf Scholz has already aroused the irritation of London for having affirmed that the British and the French were helping Ukrainian soldiers in the handling of these missiles.
According to the German Tagesschau channel, the conversation would have taken place on February 19, 2024 and would concern the preparation of a briefing for the Minister of Defense, Boris Pistorius (SPD). Experts interviewed by the German weekly Der Spiegel deemed the file authentic. This leak is embarrassing for Berlin, which has so far officially refused any delivery of Taurus missiles, despite them being loudly and clearly demanded by kyiv. Officially, the chancellor believes that such a decision would involve soldiers on site, but it is more of an escalation of the war that Olaf Scholz fears.
In Moscow, the diplomatic machine is racing: the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, asked for “rapid explanations from Germany” on this affair. “Any attempt to avoid answering questions will be considered an admission of guilt,” she said.
“Our sworn enemies”
The number two of the Russian Security Council, Dmitri Medvedev, did not weigh his words on his Telegram account, arguing that “our long-time rivals, the Germans, have once again become our sworn enemies”. “Look how precisely, in what detail the Germans are talking about hitting our territory with long-range missiles, choosing targets to hit and how to inflict maximum damage on our homeland,” he wrote. Speaking at a diplomatic forum in Turkey on Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that the recording indicated that Ukraine and its backers “absolutely do not want to change course and want to inflict a strategic defeat of Russia on the battlefield.
Roderich Kiesewetter, a defense expert for the CDU (conservatives), the main opposition party, said that “the conversion was deliberately leaked by Russia at this precise moment with a very specific objective”, that of nip in the bud the debate in Germany surrounding the delivery of Taurus missiles to kyiv. “Other conversations were certainly listened to and will be broadcast later to serve Russia’s interests,” he told ZDF, the country’s second channel, before adding that espionage is part of the “box”. “Tools of Hybrid Warfare” from Moscow.
Beyond the war in Ukraine, it is a hard blow for the image of German Defense. According to Spiegel, the discussion between German officers emanates from a video conference on the public platform WebEx and not from a secret internal army network, which raises questions about internal security standards in the Bundeswehr. The German tabloid Bild ! speaks of an “incredible security problem”, when the weekly Die Zeit cries “disaster” for the air force across the Rhine. German officials, for their part, fear that this alleged tapping is not isolated. One thing is certain: the recording plays into the hands of Moscow, which is once again trying to destabilize its adversaries.