Germany accuses Putin of trying to destabilize

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius accused Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday (3) of trying to “destabilize Germany” by leaking a secret military conversation about arms supplies to Ukraine.

He added: “It is simply a matter of using this recording to destabilize the country's unity.” He added that the goal is to “sow political division internally and I sincerely hope that Putin does not succeed and that we remain united.”

Pistorius said the German intelligence sector would evaluate whether “the appropriate platform has been chosen” to continue this dialogue. He also informed the minister that he was awaiting the outcome of the military investigation before drawing conclusions. Yesterday, German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz promised to conduct a “comprehensive” investigation into the case.

The conversation was published by the head of the Russian state channel RT, Margarita Simonyan, who claimed that the 38-minute audio recording is an excerpt of a conversation between German officials about a possible bombing in Crimea.

In the illegal wiretapping operation, German officials spoke privately about the possibility of delivering German-made long-range Taurus missiles to Kiev, what it would take for Ukrainian forces to use them, and their potential impact. Yesterday (2), Berlin confirmed the authenticity of the recording and that it had been “intercepted.”