Moscow’s espionage coup has divided Western allies, discredited Scholz and hampered Kyiv’s push for weapons.
Even before the recording was released, Scholz faced substantial blowback over his claim that Germany would have to deploy troops.
Last week, senior Green MP Anton Hofreiter said Scholz was “obviously not telling the truth” about the Taurus missiles, noting Germany had sent 260 to South Korea without the kind of targeting support the chancellor described. Hofreiter suggested the real reason for Scholz’s reluctance could be that “he has no trust in the Ukrainians.”
Indeed, Scholz and his fellow Social Democratic skeptics do have a longstanding fear that Kyiv might use any guided missiles Berlin sent to attack Moscow directly. The Taurus, which is typically launched from the belly of a fighter aircraft, has a range of about 500 kilometers, meaning a Ukrainian plane making a short detour over the country’s northern border could bring the Russian capital within range.
Scholz’s government has sought to characterize the exchanges as the kind of war-gaming that the military officers are paid to conduct. The real scandal, Pistorius argued, was Putin’s “information war.”
“We’re dealing with a hybrid attack involving disinformation to divide us and undermine our unity,” Pistorius said on Sunday. “We shouldn’t fall for Putin’s trick.”
In truth, however, the Russian hack owed more to old-fashioned spycraft than disinformation. Yes, Putin may be using the recording to feed his propaganda machine at home, presenting it as more evidence that the West is out to get Russia. But Germany leaks like a sieve, and its counterintelligence defenses are in sore need of an overhaul.
