How did Russia intercept the secret conversation of the German army?

2024-03-04 09:21:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

How did Russia intercept the secret conversation of the German army?

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has called for unity after Russia published a conversation between senior German air force officers. "It is about a hybrid attack of disinformation, it is about division, and undermining our unity," said the social democratic politician. "We must not fall into Putin's trap."

Therefore we must react wisely, "yes not less decisively". Pistorius has refused to take action on military personnel at this time. This would be an exaggeration, but it should be clarified, if in this conversation confidential content was discussed and if for this conversation the conferencing service, Webex was the appropriate format to communicate.

Kiesewetter: Russia likely had the census data

Russian television had published on the Internet on Friday a recording of a telephone conference of senior German army officers, a preparatory conversation before the briefing of the Minister of Defense. In it, the head of German fighter aviation, Ingo Gerhartz, is heard discussing with three officers a possible Taurus missile mission in Ukraine against Russian attackers.

The information is partly of great military value. One of the inspectors of the German army says that he imagines that at first 50 and then 50 missiles of the "Taurus" type can be given, if the chancellor changes his position, in addition, there is talk that the British are also talking about the missiles that they have offered to Ukraine "there are some people on the ground". Another issue that was theoretically discussed was the Taurus missiles and whether they would technically be able to destroy the bridge erected by Russia after the illegal annexation of Crimea. Or if Ukraine could do the strike, such as programming, without the help of the Bundeswehr. The publication of this conversation shows the security problems within the German army.

It is not known exactly how Russia secured the conversation. But the CDU's defense politician, Roderich Kiesewetter, is of the opinion that Moscow had data to register on the platform. "Unfortunately, data is being added, that probably a Russian participant registered on Webex and did not notice that there was another phone number that had access," the CDU politician told ARD. Kieswetter refers to professional sources, without mentioning the origin of the information.

The timing of the release of the conversation was chosen on purpose, say both CDU politician Kiesewetter and Defense Minister Pistorius. "Nobody seriously believes that this was a coincidence," Pistorius said, referring to the publication shortly after the death of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and the publication of the Wirecard and Jan Marsalek investigations. "In the end it's important that we stay together," said Pistorius./ DW