Oliver Towfigh Nia
04 March 2024•Update: 05 March 2024
BERLIN
The German government on Monday rejected Kremlin claims that Berlin is planning for war with Russia, calling them “absurd” and “propaganda.”
Allegations that Germany is preparing for a war is an “absurd, infamous Russian propaganda,” deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Buchner said at a routine press briefing in Berlin.
“We know this rhetoric and this new level of escalation. I mean, Putin and his confidants are openly threatening to use atomic weapons, directly or indirectly. The federal government is not intimidated by these things,” he added.
Earlier on Monday, the Kremlin said leaked discussions between senior German military officers last week suggested that plans by Berlin to attack Russia are being “substantively and specifically” discussed.
“This (conversation) in itself suggests that within the Bundeswehr (armed forces), plans to launch strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation are being substantively and specifically discussed. This does not require any legal interpretation; everything here is more than obvious,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a press briefing in Moscow.
Peskov hinted at summoning German Ambassador to Moscow Alexander Lambsdorff to demarche Berlin for leaked conversations.
Russian media outlets also reported Lambsdorff entering the Foreign Ministry building in Moscow and later leaving it without giving comments to journalists.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has yet to release a statement on the matter.
Meanwhile, local media reported, citing the Foreign Ministry, that Russia had not summoned the German ambassador to Moscow in response to the leaked conversations.
The German ambassador went to a routine meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Moscow and was not summoned, local media reported, adding that the appointment had been long planned.
On Sunday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius accused Russia of carrying out a “hybrid attack” against the country after senior military officers’ discussions were wiretapped and leaked to the media.
“This incident is clearly more than just the interception and publication of a discussion in the air force,” he told reporters.
“This is part of an information war that Russian President Putin is waging, there is no doubt about that, it is a hybrid attack for disinformation, it aims at creating divisions, undermining our unity,” he said.
Pistorius promised a thorough investigation into the incident, as well as new measures to combat wiretapping and eavesdropping.
The German government has come under immense pressure after alleged confidential discussions of German Air Force officers about the Ukraine war were wiretapped and leaked to Russian media.
In the leaked audio recordings, German Air Force chief Gen. Ingo Gerhartz and senior military officers were discussing the possible delivery of long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, and their potential use to destroy the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to Russia.
In the 38-minute recording, military officers can be heard discussing different scenarios in the event of a German government decision to deliver Taurus missiles to Ukraine, and whether the Ukrainian military could use these weapons without the involvement of the German air force, and its technical and intelligence support.
Their discussions also involved some possible tricks, such as providing Ukraine with satellite pictures, data, and intelligence through third parties to avoid direct involvement in the conflict.
