German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius warned on Sunday of the growing threat of a Russian information war after a phone conversation between German officials was intercepted and leaked to Russian media.
A telephone conference between high-ranking German air force and Bundeswehr officials on the deployment of Taurus missiles in Ukraine has been intercepted by Russia, and Russian state broadcaster RT published a recording of the call on Friday.
Germany rang the alarm bells after the case became public on Saturday, with Pistorius calling for a resolute reaction.
“It’s part of an information war that Putin is waging,” Pistorius said on Sunday. “It’s about division. It’s about undermining our unity. And accordingly, we should react to this in a particularly level-headed manner, but no less resolutely.”
According to Pistorius, Germany and its allies should not “fall for Putin’s tricks” which aim at “driving our domestic politics apart,” the German minister added.
While the Defence Ministry stated that it assumed that the conversation was indeed intercepted by Russia, it is currently investigating whether all of the leaked conversations are authentic and is not aware of any other leaks or interceptions but cannot completely rule it out either.
In the coming days, the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) will further investigate the case and whether IT security regulations have been breached during the phone meeting. The German minister also stated that appropriate measures would be taken after the investigation concludes.
The opposition is already assessing whether to call for an investigation committee in the Bundestag. Scholz should explain himself in the Bundestag, the group leader of the conservative CSU, Alexander Dobrindt, told Spiegel, adding that the establishment of such a committee “cannot be ruled out”.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz himself already commented on the matter. It was a “very serious matter” that was being investigated “very carefully, very intensively and very quickly”, he said in Rome on Saturday.
(Oliver Noyan | Euractiv.de)
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