BERLIN, March 5./TASS/. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said a disciplinary probe has been launched into top-ranking German officers who took part in a conversation on plans to attack the Crimean Bridge using German Taurus missiles, which was wiretapped and leaked to the press.
"Our IT specialists are continuing the on-site investigation; although we have figured out the cause of the wiretap, we are conducting a criminalistic [forensic] examination of all the devices used," Pistorius told reporters. In addition, specialists are investigating whether there were agenda items in that conversation that should not have been discussed via the WebEx platform, even if the service was used properly, he said. "And this morning I ordered preliminary disciplinary checks, that is, a preliminary probe into the participants in that video conference call," the minister emphasized.
"Depending on the results and once we have the results, the decision will be made as to whether to initiate disciplinary proceedings or not. But we are not that far yet," Pistorius stated.
"Even if the wiretap leak was definitely not caused by a compromise to our IT systems, we are taking additional measures or developing the existing ones to ensure that our IT systems are continuously analyzed and strengthened. We continue to review and raise awareness of what kind of sensitive information can be discussed on which communication platforms," the minister said.
RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said on March 1 that on the very day that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was giving public 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.
On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned German Ambassador to Moscow Alexander Lambsdorff to deliver a formal demarche and demand clarifications of the circumstances of the leaked conversation among Bundeswehr officers discussing potential attacks on the Crimean Bridge using Taurus missiles.