The script of a conversation between high-ranking German Air Force generals, released by Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Rossiya Segodnya media group and the RT channel, has stirred panic among that country’s political bosses. Small wonder given that Air Force Inspector Ingo Gerhartz, Head of Operations and Exercises in the Luftwaffe Command Frank Gräfe and two lieutenant colonels of the Bundeswehr Space Command named Fenske and Florstedt were discussing ways to destroy Russia’s Crimean Bridge with long-range (approximately 500-550 km) Taurus cruise missiles. This primarily refers to firing them from the French-produced Rafale fighters.
Conversation participants contemplated the most efficient options to attack the bridge without making Germany a party to the conflict. With this approach playing into Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s repeated assurances that Germany “is not and will not be a party to the war” between Ukraine and Russia, one may safely assume that the Bundeswehr has been scrupulously preparing to provide Ukraine with Taurus for quite a while.
In this regard, it all adds up to the following conclusions: first, present-day German generals are ripe to make amends for Nazi Germany’s WWII defeat. Unsurprisingly, the script published by Margarita Simonyan featured the phrase “good old-fashioned Luftwaffe”. The current German Air Force leaders are clearly confident that cutting-edge systems at NATO’s disposal — combat aircraft and cruise missiles — are capable of meeting the strategic objective long declared by Foreign Minister Annalena Bärbock and her ilk to “defeat Russia on the battlefield” or “prevent Russia’s victory”, as formulated in the West lately.
As we can see, it is no longer about averting our victory over Ukraine, it is about NATO, which is yet another proof of the alliance’s war on Russia. There is no prize for guessing that several thousand military experts from the United States, England and France have been on the ground in Ukraine, performing a variety of tasks for the AFU, including intel provision and handling of weapons they supplied to Kiev. By the way, German military experts must have been, among other things, in charge of both their IRIS-T air defense systems and the shaky state of Leopard tanks.
The second conclusion hard to escape over the stir caused by the Bundeswehr’s exposed readiness to target Russia with long-range missiles is that deception in international affairs is becoming routine practice of German leaders. Former Chancellor Angela Merkel already admitted that the West was deliberately delaying implementation of the Minsk agreements, while seeking to arm Ukraine down to the limit. Now, Chancellor Olaf Scholz assures whenever possible that Germany will not send its Taurus missiles or troops to Kiev. This only sounds credible to those naive in the extreme who have missed his promises not to supply German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine’s Nazis.
Tellingly, the recent statements by German politicians and most of the media have not been focused on the fact of carelessly dragging Germany and all of Europe into a major war fraught with a nuclear apocalypse, but on finger pointing for the leak of classified information. One the main culprits is said to be Germany’s military counterintelligence MAD (Militaerischer Abschirmdienst). Thus, former advisor on military policy to German ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel, retired Brigade General Erich Vad told the capital's Berliner Zeitung: “Wiretapping is up to intelligence services, and it even occurs among allies — recall how America tapped Chancellor Merkel's mobile phone. But in a protected room, officers are entitled to openly discuss military operation scenarios and weigh the risks of carrying them out.”
Apparently, Mr. Vad is not at all surprised that senior generals discuss “scenarios” for missile attacks on Russia, although he has later called Scholz’s decision not to send Taurus to Kiev “absolutely correct”, because this missile “has a greater range and destructive power than the British and French systems” and is therefore capable of “reaching the Kremlin and the government in Moscow.” The expert also admitted that Taurus supplies go hand in hand with German military personnel to service them, which “is clear war engagement.”
Meanwhile, the Scholz government has been focused on a “comprehensive internal investigation” into ways and extent the German Defense Ministry, Air Force command and MAD leaked classified information. By the way, Chancellor Scholz rejected demands by the parliamentary opposition to create a special commission in the Bundestag to investigate the scandal. And Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called the situation part of Russia’s “information war and misinformation campaign.” With Germany having officially recognized tape authenticity literally within a day and a half, the minister’s “misinformation” rhetoric is only indicative of his obvious confusion. After all, if local elites deem this as a leak of secret information, why implicate “misinformation”?
