The core of the Bundeswehr wiretapping affair has been solved. The Taurus leak is attributed to an individual error. There are no personal consequences – because Putin shouldn’t walk away with a trophy.
The Ministry of Defense blames the carelessness of a Bundeswehr general in Singapore for the fact that a confidential conversation about the Taurus cruise missile was intercepted by Russia. When presenting the first results of the investigation, Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) spoke of an “individual application error” that led to a “random hit” in a widespread interception operation by the Russians during the Singapore Airshow.
Pistorius does not want to draw any personal consequences for the time being. Unless something worse comes out, “I will not sacrifice any of my best officers to Putin’s games,” he emphasized.
On Friday, Russia published a recorded conference call of four senior officers, including Air Force Chief Ingo Gerhartz. In it, they discussed operational scenarios for the Taurus missiles in the event that they were to be delivered to Ukraine. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has currently ruled out this and justified his rejection by saying that Germany could then be drawn into the war. Taurus has a range of 500 kilometers and can therefore also hit targets in Moscow from Ukraine.
No error in the Bundeswehr communication system
Pistorius announced the interim results of the investigations by the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) on Tuesday shortly before a trip to Scandinavia. According to this, the cause of the Taurus leak is not a fault in the Bundeswehr’s communications system, but rather the individual carelessness of a general who dialed into the conversation from a hotel in Singapore.
“Our communication systems were not compromised,” emphasized Pistorius, who did not name the conference participant in Singapore. The recording shows that it is Brigadier General Frank Gräfe.
According to the SPD politician, the conversation between the four officers took place in accordance with regulations via the Webex internet platform, which the Bundeswehr uses in different protected versions for such conversations. The fact that this conversation could still be intercepted was because the participant in Singapore did not follow the secure dial-in procedure, said Pistorius. He took part in the conversation from Singapore via a “non-secure data line”, i.e. via mobile phone or WLAN.
Air show in Singapore “a hit” for the Russians
At the time of the conversation, the Singapore Airshow was taking place in the Southeast Asian city-state, in which many high-ranking European military officials took part. “For Russian secret services, such an event in this environment is understandable,” said Pistorius. Wiretapping operations took place across the board in the hotels used. Access to the Bundeswehr officers’ Webex conference was then a Russian “random hit, as part of a broad, diversified approach.”
Pistorius harshly rejected the theory spread by some media that a Russian spy could have taken part in the conversation without being noticed. “I was somewhat astonished that such a hypothesis was being spread publicly without there being any serious evidence for it at the time.”
Personnel consequences: No trophy for Putin
The Defense Minister said that preliminary disciplinary investigations had now been initiated against all four participants in the conversation. However, he also emphasized that personnel consequences were “not currently on the agenda”. This is primarily due to the fact that the federal government “does not want to fall for Russian President Vladimir Putin,” as it is now being said again and again. The Russians should not be left with the trophy of a fired general as a result of their eavesdropping attack.
Technical consequences: Only improvements
Pistorius also sees no fundamental need for changes to the communication systems. “Our certified means of communication are fundamentally safe if all requirements are applied correctly, there is no doubt about that,” he said. However, if necessary, adjustments should be made at one point or another. “We need to continue to harden our systems,” he said. But Pistorius also made it clear that the systems cannot be 100% secure. He had no knowledge of another wiretapping incident. “But that doesn’t rule out the possibility of another one.”
Germany’s trustworthiness: According to Pistorius “unbroken”
But what damage to the land has been caused by the affair? What does it mean for Germany’s trustworthiness in the Western alliance? Doubts about this have been raised in recent days. “We know that Germany is heavily penetrated by Russian secret services. This shows that it is neither safe nor reliable,” said British politician Ben Wallace, who served as Defense Minister for four years between 2019 and 2023 and got an idea of Germany’s trustworthiness could do.
