Putin himself has not commented on the audio leak yet, but his spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warned Monday that, “The [military conversation] itself suggests that in the bowels of the Bundeswehr, plans for strikes on Russian territory are being discussed in a substantive and concrete manner.”
Russia’s state-owned news agency TASS reported that Monday’s meeting between Berlin’s ambassador and the Kremlin’s foreign ministry was primarily devoted to the leak. Germany denied that the ambassador had been summoned, and said it was an “invitation to talk about various bilateral topics.” The Russian foreign ministry said it would not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment about the substance of the meeting.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been reluctant to send Ukraine long-range missiles, fearing that Germany risks being dragged squarely into the Kremlin’s war should Kyiv use Taurus to hit targets on Russian soil. (European allies Britain and France have both provided the Ukrainian military with similar long-range missiles.)
One expert on German-Russia relations said the audio leak is being primarily used by Moscow for propaganda purposes so far, as it does not include any specific military details. It might also aim to inflame broader discussions within the German establishment to harm Scholz’s reputation, Alex Yusupov, director of Russia program at Germany’s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, told POLITICO.
“The effect so far observed is very limited, for in fact the record shows that the matter was closely examined just before the decision not to deliver the Taurus, but apparently the Russian side was sorry to leave the record unused,” Yusupov added.
And RT, the state outlet which first reported on and published the audio, hinted it might not be finished yet.
“If they give me more, I’ll post more. Wait for it,” wrote Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan on Sunday.
Denis Leven is hosted at POLITICO under the EU-funded EU4FreeMedia residency program.
