The German defense minister did not attempt to minimize the seriousness of the scandal. "The incident goes far beyond the interception and publication of a conversation, but is part of the information war being waged by Putin," declared Boris Pistorius on Sunday, March 3, two days after the Russian channel RT broadcast a discussion between senior officials of the German air force (Luftwaffe) in which the delivery of Taurus-type cruise missiles to Ukraine was discussed. "It's a hybrid disinformation attack – it's about division, it's about undermining our unity," he warned, before adding: "We mustn't fall for Putin."
Pistorius was right to be worried. Since Friday, what the German media have been quick to call the "wiretapping scandal" has plunged the country into consternation. How was it possible that Russia, in the current geopolitical context, had access to a conversation between four high-ranking Luftwaffe officers, including its commander-in-chief, Ingo Gerhartz?
The answer was dismayingly simple: Instead of communicating over an encrypted network, the four men are said to have simply exchanged data over the public videoconferencing platform WebEx, with one of them logging on with his cell phone from a hotel room in Singapore. "There are indications that an insufficiently secure communication channel was used in relation to the content discussed. This is the subject of ongoing investigations," a Ministry of Defense spokeswoman said on Sunday, referring to the investigation entrusted to the MAD, the military counter-espionage service, on Friday.
While the incident has been disastrous for the image of the German army, it was also politically embarrassing. The content from the intercepted conversation was anything but trivial. In the 38-minute extract, revealed by RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonian, the participants discuss how the Ukrainian army could use Taurus missiles if Germany decided to supply them. Referring to the possibility of using them to strike the highly symbolic and strategic Kerch Bridge, which links Russia to Crimea, they explained that rapid deployment of these ultra-sophisticated weapons would require German soldiers to be sent to the site. They added that the Ukrainians could use them themselves if they were trained for the purpose by Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr, for example at the Büchel air base in western Germany, but point out that in this case, several months' training would be required.
Speaking to the press on Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denounced the "cunning plans of the Bundeswehr, which became apparent due to the publication of this audio recording. This is a blatant self-exposure." From the Kremlin's point of view, it's easy to see why this exchange, which also alludes to the presence of British soldiers and American agents in civilian clothes on Ukrainian territory, was leaked. With two weeks to go before Russia's March 15-17 presidential election, anything that feeds the idea that countries supporting Kyiv militarily are discussing secret plans to strike his country can only help Vladimir Putin.
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