During WWII, British citizens became familiar with the saying “loose lips sink ships”, reflecting the potential damage careless speech can cause, while in Nazi Germany, the people were warned “feind hört mit”, meaning the adversary is eavesdropping. Today, these lessons are observed in a contemporary setting.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has spent the past four days managing an issue related to the latter saying. On Tuesday, he admitted that Moscow has greatly enjoyed its recent propaganda victory, thanks to a leaked video conference. The 38-minute strategy call, which took place on February 19th, involved four high-ranking German military officials deliberating the possibility of delivering a Taurus cruise missile system to Ukraine.
The purpose of the call was to outline a briefing for Minister Pistorius. However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz decided against any such missile delivery to Ukraine just a week later.
During a press briefing on Tuesday, Pistorius dispelled the notion that a penetrated and leaked video call is evidence of an insecure military communication system. He attributed this “highly frustrating error” to human mistake and technological laxity rather than network security failure.
In the video conference, one of the four participants disregarded military security and coded measures, connecting via a hotel wifi network in Singapore. The participant used a smartphone, despite the Bundeswehr’s (Germany’s armed forces) Cisco WebEx system only being capable of encrypting calls when all involved are using its laptop client server.
Pistorius portrayed this breach as a standard, opportunistic sweep by intelligence agencies during major events such as the Singapore Air Show in this instance. “For Russian intelligence, this was quite a catch,” he acknowledged, but Pistorius also noted it was likely an incidental result of a wider, unfocused approach.
Moscow has claimed the call as evidence that Germany is planning an assault on Russia. However, German officialdom sees Moscow’s motives as being based on internal politics, and more specifically, on the upcoming Russian presidential election.
Despite Moscow’s interpretation, German officials maintain that the call was a theoretical conversation acknowledging that, so far, the chancellor has shown “no inclination” to provide Ukraine with a Taurus cruise missile system.
On February 26th, Scholz spurred a public disagreement when he seemingly revealed that troops from the UK and France were present in Ukraine to assist with the operation of missiles supplied by these nations. His statement detailed that the UK and France were performing target control tasks that could not be carried out in Germany.
Pistorius, after liaising with his Nato allies in Europe, reported on Tuesday that there was no frustration directed towards Germany. They had reached a consensus to not allow the Russian attack to cause internal division, nor would they hand Putin the power to dictate the terms of the situation.
However, the German government shows a less unified front. Scholz’s decision to withhold cruise missile supply to Kyiv is approved by his Social Democratic Party but has ruffled feathers within his coalition. On the contrary, his allies are against Pistorius’s initiative, also from the SPD, to reintroduce some form of military service in the current parliamentary term.
The Green Party argued that such a measure would “alienate” the younger demographic, while FDP suggested that a force of enthusiastic, well-remunerated professionals who have a desire to defend the nation was more desirable.
Alexander Müller, FDP defence policy spokesperson, stated that they reject the idea of compulsory peacetime military service as it heavily infringes upon civil liberties, career autonomy and personal life planning.
Military analysts have recognised Germany’s candid discussions over cruise missiles and military service as a clear sign of the progress Germany has made on military issues. This shift can be seen as a response to the changes forced upon the country by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago, that compelled it to abandon its post-1990 tendency towards military restraint.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Germany’s opposition party, made a statement regarding the leaked army video call, suggesting the likelihood of Russia having more of this sort of evidence. Instead of succumbing to fear, CDU advised Scholz to go ahead with the deployment of the Taurus system to Ukraine.
Roderick Kiesewetter, the defence spokesperson for the CDU, contradicted Mr Scholz’s assertion that Bundeswehr troops were necessary to transport the Taurus to Ukraine or to get it functioning there. He suggested Moscow was conscious of this fact, and noted the leak was purposefully aimed to discourage the chancellor – a ploy he said has proven successful previously.
On another note, Moscow issued a vague warning on Monday, predicting “dire consequences,” and a prominent Russian propagandist hinted on Tuesday that significant infrastructures like the Hohenzollern Bridge over the Rhine river in Cologne could be targeted by Russia.
Keep abreast with the most recent political discussions and analysis by tuning into our Inside Politics Podcast. Subscribe for push notifications and receive top news, analysis and commentary directly on your phone. Stay updated by following The Irish Times on WhatsApp.