BRUSSELS, March 5. /TASS/. The leak of a conversation among senior Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) officers about a potential Ukrainian strike on Russia’s Crimean Bridge has evoked a major response because, despite claims by the West, this was not attempted disinformation but uncensored information, Matthew Karnitschnig, correspondent at Politico Europe said.
In his opinion, the recording of the conversation is "powerful," because it is "just uncensored information." The author notes that nothing said by the officers was manipulated which rules out any disinformation.
Karnitschnig also insists that the incident provoked clashes between Russia’s adversaries as well made the delivery of German-made Taurus missiles to Ukraine even less likely. He pointed out that the leak indicates that German counterintelligence is "in sore need of an overhaul."
On March 4, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz again confirmed his refusal to send Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, saying that they would require the presence of German military personnel. Scholz has repeatedly emphasized that he opposed handing Taurus cruise missiles over to Ukraine, citing the risk of Berlin getting dragged into the conflict. If used incorrectly, the weapons can hit a designated target somewhere in Moscow, the chancellor argued in a recent encounter with members of the public in Dresden.
On March 1, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said that on the very day that Scholz gave 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.
According to Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry 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.