MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. Russia hopes to learn the results of the probe that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz ordered following the publication of a leaked audio recording of a conversation among four senior Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces - TASS) officers about deliveries of long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine and the tactical aspects of using this weapons system in a potential attack on the Crimean Bridge, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"Mr. Scholz said that a quick, full and effective probe would be carried out in this regard. We hope that we will somehow learn what the probe concludes; I mean, at least through the media," he noted.

Peskov stressed that the audio recording of the German military officers’ conversation pointed to the German Defense Ministry’s specific discussions of plans to carry out strikes on Russia. The Kremlin spokesman noted that Moscow had delivered a demarche to Germany in that regard. "You know that we delivered a specific demarche, summoning the German ambassador [to the Russian Foreign Ministry]. The very [conversation between the military officers] makes it clear that plans to carry out strikes inside Russia are under discussion within the Bundeswehr. There is no need for legal interpretations because everything is more than clear," the Russian presidential spokesman said. "All the interested parties have had the opportunity to familiarize themselves [with the audio recording], and it’s not the case that strikes on the Crimean Bridge were [only] allegedly discussed there, but they were in fact discussed. The choice of words is critical," he added.

According to Peskov, the release of the audio of the German military officers’ conversation raises the question as to what extent Scholz actually exercises control over them. "We are yet to find out if the Bundeswehr is doing this on its own initiative. If so, the question is to what extent the Bundeswehr is controllable and to what extent Mr. Scholz controls it all, and whether it is part of Germany’s government policy. Both options are very negative as they once again highlight the involvement of the countries of the so-called collective West in the conflict around Ukraine," the Kremlin spokesman concluded.

RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said on March 1 that on the very day that Scholz was giving assurances that NATO was not now and would not in the future be directly involved in the Ukraine conflict, Germany’s top brass was in fact mulling how to carry out a potential attack on 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 of the Bundeswehr officers’ conversation in her possession. She later released a transcript of it, which makes it clear that the military officers discussed the Taurus missiles’ capability to hit and destroy the Crimean Bridge and the tactical details involved in preparing such an attack.