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German officers plot Taurus missile attack on the Crimea bridge

By Gilbert Doctorow | March 2, 2024

You very likely have not heard anything about the headlined news, but it is an item which has been widely discussed in official Russian media yesterday and today. RT took the lead in publicizing it and other news portals followed suit. Moreover, it was featured on yesterday’s Sixty Minutes news and analysis program of Russian state television.

The plans to destroy the bridge at Kerch have not been reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which yesterday was very heavily invested in covering the Navalny funeral in Moscow, but they are mentioned in the German publications Welt and Bild. The focus in these publications was on whether allegedly intercepted audio conversations of high level German officers are genuine and not AI faked. The verdict is that they are likely genuine. Meanwhile the German authorities have banned the X (Twitter) accounts which initially disseminated the recordings.

The essence of the scandal is that the officers were on 19 February discussing preparations for an attack on the bridge using Taurus long range cruise missiles launched from French-made Dassault Rafale jets. The participants in the intercepted conversations were the head for operations and exercises at the Air Forces Command of the Bundeswehr command Frank Grafe, Air Force Inspector Ingo Gerhartz and employees of the Air Operations Command within the Space Operations Center of the Bundeswehr Fenske and Frohstedte.

This news was commented upon by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who called up the German press to show their independence and question German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock about this plot, which runs directly against what Chancellor Scholz was saying at the time about the inadmissibility of introducing the Taurus into the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The transcript of the plotters is available here:

https://www.bundle.app/en/breakingNews/full-transcript-of-german-top-military-officials’-leaked-plot-to-attack-crimean-bridge-15a59c62-f695-4d07-852d-788455d17230

It makes for good weekend reading.

You will notice how these senior German officers are looking for solutions that do not cross the Chancellor’s red lines against appearing to collude with the Ukrainians and appearing to direct their targeting. Also note the hand-in-glove cooperation with the British, who have accumulated a lot of experience assisting the Ukrainian strikes behind Russian lines using their Storm Shadow missiles. Finally, see the remark that there are a great many individuals speaking with American accents who are assisting the Ukrainian military in operating the sophisticated weaponry being delivered to them while wearing civilian dress.

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Further, one might ask: what is the German government going to do about this seeming insubordination which could lead directly to Russia declaring war on Germany and taking us further down the road to WWIII. Logically, they should all be fired, at least suspended and a Bundestag investigation should be initiated. If Scholz cannot disown this plot then he is part of it.

Finally, I am obliged to mention that the release of this news by the Kremlin three days after the State of the Nation address by Vladimir Putin puts in an essential context the President’s remarks in that speech that the Russians have missiles capable of striking the territory of those who may attack their country and that this could lead to nuclear war and ‘the end of civilization.’  That last point is virtually the only element in his speech which attracted the interest of Western media.  We now see that it did not come out of the blue, but was clear messaging to the Germans, to the United States that Russia knows the game they are preparing to strike the Kerch bridge and will respond with the full force of its arms.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2024

March 2, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , , | Leave a comment