2024-03-13 18:37:00
Bundestag disputes over Strack-Zimmermann wiretapping case: Russia is “really fed up” with Taurus
By Frauke Niemeyer March 13, 2024, 7:37 p.m. Listen to article
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The AfD has requested a current hour on the Taurus leak, but Ampel and Union find completely different factors in the espionage case scandalous. For FDP Ms. Strack-Zimmermann, the wiretapping case is, above all, evidence of the Russian fear of Taurus.
At lunchtime, the opposition criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the government survey because of his no to Taurus. Two hours later, only Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is still sitting on the government bench. The AfD has requested a current hour, and this is also about Taurus, the coveted German precision weapon, but with a view to a completely different problem.
Because the name Taurus now also stands for a spy scandal. The Taurus leak has been out in the world for almost three weeks. A 38-minute recording of a confidential conference call between four high-ranking Bundeswehr officers, presumably intercepted by Russian spies, can be found on the Internet.
Air Force inspector “chats happily”
However, opinions differ widely between the parliamentary groups in the Bundestag as to what exactly is scandalous about this scandal, and that becomes clear very quickly. The AfD sees “enormous damage” in the fact that the Air Force inspector is spilling “state secrets” on the phone, such as the number of Tauruses in service. Also state secrets of other nations, such as the covert “operation of American military advisors in Ukraine”. MP Rüdiger Lucassen complains at the beginning of the debate that he is “cheerfully chatting away” how German soldiers could covertly support the use of the Taurus.
Shortly afterwards, however, he contradicts himself by pointing out that former Chancellor Angela Merkel had already stated during her time in office that “even the Americans are monitoring us.” Eavesdropping among friends – that’s still going on, “to this day, by the way, and the Russians and the Chinese are eavesdropping in the same way.” From his point of view, espionage is more the norm than a scandal, which would also mean that facts such as the Taurus’ operational readiness, which Lucassen described as secret, are already known to the Kremlin.
For his party colleague Matthias Moosdorf, the scenarios thought through by the four officers are an “act of war against Russia or simply terrorism.” What upsets the AfD politician is not the fact that the conversation ended up in Russian hands, but the fact that it took place at all. Here the AfD meets with the group Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), whose MP Andrej Hunko finds the officers’ “dilettantish” behavior quite scandalous. What is actually disturbing, however, is the content of the conversation. Diplomatic initiatives are finally needed, not escalation.
So while the AfD and BSW are particularly upset about the content of the switching conversation, this excitement is not shared by any of the other parties at the current hour. At times it seems as if two completely different debates are going on here at the same time, like in two parallel worlds. For the Union’s security expert, Serap Güler, four high-ranking officers in the switchboard were simply “doing their job” by developing various scenarios for a Taurus operation, and that’s how the three traffic light parties also see it.
Pressure to “kick out outstanding generals”
“I’m not sure whether the AfD parliamentary group thinks we’re all completely stupid here,” summarizes FDP defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann right at the beginning of her speech and then focuses primarily on the Russian goals behind the publication of the recording. Pressure should be put on the defense minister to “kick out outstanding generals.” Likewise on the Federal Chancellor, “just don’t hand over the Taurus. Obviously Russia is really fed up with the Taurus,” said Strack-Zimmermann.
When both parallel debates do refer to each other, it is primarily in the accusation that comes from the SPD, Greens, FDP and Union almost in unison: the AfD is stabbing the Bundeswehr in the back with its portrayal. Instead of condemning the Russian attack, there is “scolding of the parliamentary army,” as SPD MP Adis Ahmetovic puts it. From his point of view, this shows where the AfD stands: “On Putin’s side.”
As the speakers from Ampel and Union see it, he wants to use the Taurus leak to dominate the German debate. The timing was deliberately set and was intended to distract attention, for example from the mourning for Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. The party representatives prefer to use the speaking time to highlight factors of the leak that are relevant to them.
For example, the contradiction between the assessments of the Bundeswehr and what the Chancellor claims, where Serap Güler sees a clear contradiction. From their perspective, the overheard conversation shows: “Taurus could make a difference.” Güler sees the guiding principle for the government’s negative position not in the Ministry of Defense, but in the SPD party headquarters.
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