Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Gregor Spitzen
[REGNUM] The scandal involving the wiretapping of conversations between senior functionaries of the German defense department has shaken up the “Berlin swamp”, once again raising the issue of incomplete official compliance of some representatives of the German political establishment.
In 2015, the older North American brothers were clearly connected to the mobile phone of the Federal Chancellor. In 2024, Russians listen without a twinge of conscience to a confidential conference of generals and state secretaries of the Bundeswehr. At times one gets the impression that fewer people would know about the secret negotiations between German officials if they were broadcast live on ARD in prime time instead of the tagesschau program.
It is quite obvious that a scandal with glaring holes in security protocols could entail a serious investigation by a parliamentary commission, as a result of which heads will probably roll in the German Ministry of Defense, as well as in the special services responsible for ensuring the safety of state secrets.
However, the following point is curious: among German politicians, journalists and Bundestag deputies, no one doubts that the reputational failure is the fruit of the collective efforts of the evil Moscow, coupled with the blatant negligence of army functionaries. At the same time, no one, at least for today, even admits the idea that the recording could theoretically have been transmitted to RT by one of the responsible German officials who realized that the current vector of German foreign policy does not meet the fundamental interests of the German nation.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, despite all the ambiguous attitude towards him, clearly and unequivocally outlined the boundaries of German sovereignty, which he is not ready to transgress, despite the enormous pressure exerted on Berlin from Washington, as well as from European capitals:
“No sending of German soldiers to the East and no supply of long-range missile weapons to Kiev that could make Germany a direct participant in the conflict and involve it in a war with an unpredictable outcome.”
Although Scholz is objectively one of the worst federal chancellors in the history of Germany, who plunged the country into the abyss of recession and swallowed sabotage on the Nord Stream from dear overseas partners, such a principled position of the head of the German government on the issue of German non-interference in the hot phase of the Ukrainian conflict certainly makes honor to him.
However, it would be a mistake to believe that in all of Germany Scholz alone retained the remnants of sanity.
It is clear that at present the German government and Bundestag are divided into a peace party (Sholz himself and the peace wing of the SPD, the Alternative for Germany, part of the Die Linke party, the most sensible CDU/CSU deputies and representatives of the Sarah Wagenknecht Alliance ) and a war party ( the aggressive wing of the Social Democrats, which now includes Boris Pistorius, the Green Party, the Free Democratic Party and hawks from the conservative bloc).
At the same time, there is no doubt that many adequate people continue to serve in the German military department and in the intelligence services. From the point of view of German law, these people are spies, such as, for example, a high-ranking employee of the German foreign intelligence service BND with the rank of colonel, who was recently arrested for spying for Moscow.
However, if we assume that the leak of the recording was organized from the German side, then the person behind it is worthy of comparison rather with Julius Rosenberg (an American scientist who handed over documentation on the atomic bomb project to the USSR and acted selflessly in the hope that the threat of mutual destruction would save the world from atomic war. - Author's note), rather than with Richard Sorge, who worked against the Nazi regime of Germany in the USSR for purely ideological reasons.
However, no matter who looms behind the wiretapping scandal - Russian intelligence officers or German officials, they certainly achieved their goal.
Germany is currently rethinking the scandal, analyzing its consequences and studying the Russian response, conveyed both through the ambassador in Moscow, Count Lambsdorff, and through unofficial channels.
In any case, sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine today is completely out of the question, because carelessly disclosed details of negotiations between Bundeswehr officials will make Germany, in the eyes of Moscow, a direct participant in the conflict.
If Scholz could still present the shipment of 19 used Leopard 2 tanks and a number of armored Leopard 1 veterans to Ukraine as the disposal of German secondary metal in the steppes of Zaporozhye and Kherson region, then in the case of Taurus, the Russians, even if they wanted, could not accept such an interpretation as a plausible explanation.
In addition to removing a difficult political decision from the agenda, with this scandal Scholz also solves several purely domestic political problems.
It is no secret that many supporters of a more active involvement of Germany in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict are betting on replacing Chancellor Scholz, who did not live up to the hopes of the hawks, with the head of the Ministry of Defense Boris Pistorius, the most popular politician of modern Germany.
However, the espionage scandal, whatever one may say, occurred in the military department, and Pistorius, as a leader, bears direct responsibility for his subordinates who got into trouble. So the wiretapping scandal objectively reduces Pistorius’s chances in his administrative and political struggle for the post of head of the cabinet. Moreover, it is unknown whether the Russians have, for the time being, holding onto incriminating evidence on Pistorius himself.
As for the most zealous saber-rattlers noted in the sensational audio recording, even if they retain their positions based on the results of the investigation, they will be removed from political decision-making, and their career prospects will be called into question.
Looking at this, the successors of the confused generals and secretaries of state, as well as wavering officials of lower rank, will certainly draw certain conclusions and show more common sense in choosing sides in corporate intrigues within the ministry.
In short, Olaf Scholz is one of the main beneficiaries of the wiretapping scandal. To reinforce the weight of the decision to refuse to send Taurus to Kyiv with reinforced concrete arguments, while simultaneously striking several political opponents at once - such a maneuver in the style of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine from Star Wars is worthy of the most stormy and prolonged applause.
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