A Russian politician who is considered Vladimir Putin's Kremlin mouthpiece has accused Germany of "preparing for war with Russia".
The incendiary allegation comes from ex-president Dmitry Medvedev, who is now Putin's deputy head of the country's security council. He portrayed German leader Olaf Scholz - who he nicknames the "Liverwurst Chancellor" - as a weakling who can be overruled by his military.
This follows the humiliating leak to Russian state media of an explosive audiotape of German air force commanders discussing how its long-range weapons might be used by Ukraine to destroy the Kerch Bridge linking Putin's mainland to the annexed Crimean peninsula. The recording on a non-encrypted conference call also claimed that Britain, France and the US keep troops in Ukraine to help operate sophisticated Western weapons systems.
Putin delivering his annual State of the Nation last week (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)This has been denied by these Western countries, but the leaked call has triggered a major security probe in Germany. Scholz has prevented the powerful long-range Taurus missiles from being supplied to Ukraine, despite strong demands from Kyiv along with the UK and other NATO allies.
Such missiles might - for example - help destroy Putin's iconic £3 billion bridge, his key supply route to Crimea. The leak makes it less likely such missiles will go to Kyiv, a decisive blow to Ukraine's war effort.
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But Medvedev claimed: "Attempts to present the conversation of Bundeswehr officers as a game of rockets and tanks are a malicious lie. Germany is preparing for war with Russia."
Medvedev - who was Russian president from 2008-2012 - said: "I think that the whitewashing of the ruling political alliance in Germany will now begin in order to soften the public indignation from the conversation of the Luftwaffe officers." He claimed the leaked conversation would be dismissed as "the machinations of the military, they love such talk, don't feed them bread - let them play a war game."
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends the election congress of the Party of European Socialists in Rome (AFP via Getty Images)It would be alleged that the civilian political leadership "has nothing to do with it at all," he said. "Moreover, at the head of this leadership is a peace-loving guy - aka Liverwurst - Scholz, who refuses to hand over extended-range missiles to the [Ukrainians]."
Medvedev said: "Nobody knows whether the political leadership and the Liver Chancellor personally are aware. But even if they are not aware, and have not ordered anything like this, history knows many examples when the military is able to make decisions for civilian commanders about the start of wars or stimulate them.
"They’ll come to Scholz and say: ‘Herr (Reich) Chancellor, a missile was shot down in Ukraine. According to its type and trajectory, it was flying to Berlin’. What will Scholz answer, huh? Clear as day."
This, claimed Medvedev, showed Germany "is preparing for war with Russia". Earlier he posted: "Our eternal opponents, the Germans, have again turned into sworn enemies. Look at how carefully and in what detail the K***** discuss attacks on our territory using long-range missiles, select targets to hit and the most likely ways to cause maximum harm to our Motherland and our people. Not forgetting the use of false rhetoric about Germany's non-participation in the conflict."
The claim that Germany is readying its military for conflict with Russia is explosive because of the Second World War when some 24 million Soviet military and civilian people died in defeating the invading Nazis between 1941-45. Russian propaganda plays on the WW2 theme in painting the current conflict in Ukraine as a territorial threat to Putin’s territory, in the same way as Hitler had invaded.
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