NATO officials are reportedly concerned about Berlin’s carelessness and incompetence
Several of Germany’s allies have urged Berlin to drastically improve security measures after audio of Bundeswehr military officials discussing an attack on Russia’s Crimean Bridge was leaked, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan last week released a transcript and audio recording of what was claimed to be a conversation between four senior German military officials.
They could be heard discussing deliveries of Taurus long-range missiles to Kiev in a way that would help them to maintain plausible deniability when it comes to Berlin’s involvement in the conflict.
The conversation also suggested the presence of foreign military personnel on the ground in Ukraine. The German military has confirmed that the conversation was intercepted, and a probe into the leak is underway.
According to people familiar with the matter interviewed by Bloomberg, NATO officials “expressed concern about the seemingly careless operational security” in the German military. In particular, they reportedly rebuked Berlin for using the non-encrypted online platform WebEx for sensitive conversations.
One official called the security measures outright “unprofessional” and unbefitting of senior officers, the article said. Another Bloomberg source said he was not surprised by the German blunder, while a third official predicted tighter measures to prevent this from happening again, particularly in Germany.
The news agency also noted that the leak had revived a rift between Germany and its NATO allies over supplying Ukraine with long-range weapons. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been reluctant to send Taurus missiles to Kiev, warning of potential escalation.
The leak has already drawn criticism among some of Germany’s allies. Former UK defense secretary Ben Wallace claimed that the recording had shown that Berlin was “neither secure nor reliable” and “pretty penetrated by Russian intelligence.”
Eva Hogl, the German parliamentary commissioner for the country’s military, called for a “wide-reaching” response to the controversy, including training officials in communication protection. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said measures against “espionage and disinformation” had been stepped up. She also accused Russia of trying to “discredit our state” and “divide our society.”
Commenting on the leak, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that it only reinforced the notion that the West is directly involved in the Ukraine conflict, adding that it also raises the question of whether the German government is really in control of its military.