MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Moscow demands that Berlin provide explanations concerning the leaked audio of German Bundeswehr officers discussing plans to attack the Crimean Bridge, and any attempt to avoid giving answers will be considered as an admission of guilt, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told TASS.

"We demand explanations from Germany. Official Berlin has to provide them promptly. Any attempts to evade answering questions will be viewed as an admission of guilt," she said.

Leaked conversation

RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said earlier that on the very day that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave assurances that NATO was not and would not be directly involved in the Ukraine conflict, Germany’s top brass was in fact mulling the option of attacking the Crimean Bridge in a way that would have no repercussions for Berlin by giving it the cover of plausible deniability. Simonyan said she had a corroborating audio recording in her possession and later released the transcript of the leaked conversation, which indicates that the officers were discussing how much destruction Germany’s Taurus long-range missiles could cause to the Crimean Bridge as well as details of preparations for such an attack.

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the Kremlin was not yet aware of the contents of the leaked conversation. The issue will be reviewed at the next session of the Russian State Duma, or lower house of parliament, Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said.