BERLIN, March 20. /TASS/. The German Federal Public Prosecutor has taken over the investigation into the leak of the conversation between high-ranking German officers, where they discussed potentially attacking the Crimean Bridge with Taurus missiles, Der Spiegel reported, citing the agency representative.
The prosecution started a probe against unidentified persons suspected of "clandestine agent operations." According to the report, the German law enforcement agencies believe that Russian intelligence agencies are behind the leak.
The Federal Public Prosecutor investigates particularly serious crimes that pose a potential threat to national security. Previously, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius speculated that, after an internal inspection of the Armed Forces, the federal prosecution may file charges over the interception of the conversation.
On March 1, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said that the same day that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave public assurances that NATO was not now nor would it ever 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 March 4, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced a demarche to German Ambassador to Moscow Alexander Lambsdorff and demanded explanations over the leaked conversation of Bundeswehr officers.