Audio recordings of German military officials discussing British operations in Ukraine have been leaked, possibly to divert attention from the funeral of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny.
Analysis of social media activities of leading Russian news providers and prominent figures I Their platforms were found to be flooded with reports of leaks, while Navalny’s funeral was almost completely ignored.
That means the attention of those who rely on Russian-backed news sources will be focused on the West’s security failings, not on the funerals of people who were a thorn in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s side.
I It is also understood that officials believe the audio, which caused a diplomatic stir, was deliberately released on the day of the funeral to divert attention from the tens of thousands of people attending the commemoration.
Russian agents intercepted conversation between German air force commanders Lieutenant General Ingo Gerharz and three senior Luftwaffe officers to discuss sensitive military secrets – including the use of British “ground crews” who could help Germany deploy cruise missiles to Ukraine.
They were using secure, certified Webex video conferencing software for top-secret military planning, but the mobile device and Wi-Fi used by one of the people joining the call had been leaked, I Understood.
On March 1, the same day as Navalny’s funeral, a prominent Russian state television reporter leaked a recording of the call. Navlani’s exact cause of death remains unclear.
Margarita Simonyan, head of Russia Today (RT), shared the video with her 500,000 subscribers to Telegram, an encrypted messaging app popular for news and entertainment Russians welcome.
The post was widely shared and currently has over a million views on her Telegram channel alone.
Ms Simonyan’s 500,000 followers looking for news about the anti-corruption activist’s funeral will find nothing. Instead, she posted about the leak 14 times on March 1 alone. Over the next four days, she continued to post about the leaks.
Former Russian President and current Security Council Vice-President Dmitry Medvedev also dedicated a social media post on March 1 about the leaks, omitting the funeral. Mr. Medvedev’s Telegram profile is one of the most popular in Russia, with 1.2 million subscribers.
He said in a post that the audio showed detailed German plans to attack Russia. A second post claimed that “Germany is preparing for war with Russia.” Both have between 1.6 and 1.7 million views.
The same strategy can be seen on the Telegram channel of Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of the Russian parliamentary State Duma. His post about the audio leak has over 1.1 million subscribers and 1.8 million views. He made no mention of Navalny’s funeral.
Russian news platforms also focused on the leak.
RT’s Russian-language homepage highlighted the tapes with the headline: “You might not even need 20 missiles”: Simoyan published a conversation between the German military and the prospect of an attack on Crimea.
Navalny’s funeral did not feature in the headlines on state media websites.
RT posted about the tapes 18 times on March 1 on their own Russian-language Telegram. It has only released information about Navalny’s burial once, simply saying: “Alexey Navalny is buried in Borisov Cemetery in Moscow.”
Russia’s state-owned news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti both prominently featured at least one article about the German tapes on their homepages, but omitted the funeral.
In contrast, the home page of the non-state-owned Interfax news agency only described the funeral but did not play the audio tape.
and the site’s digital homepage. moscow timesNavalny’s funeral was covered extensively by independent Russian-language news websites.
On the afternoon of March 1, it first reported reports such as “The Kremlin ordered the media to remain silent about Navalny’s funeral” and then highlighted the number of arrests that day.this moscow times The leaked audio is not highlighted.
OVD-Info, a human rights group that tracks political arrests, said at least 131 people were detained at commemorations across Russia. Arrests continued in the days since.
Miguel Berger, Germany’s ambassador to the UK, said one of the participants connected the call in an insecure manner.
He told the BBC that preliminary findings from a military intelligence investigation suggested the leak was the result of “a personal error by an officer”.
Berger rejected comments from former British defense secretary Ben Wallace, who said Germany was “neither safe nor reliable” and “had been infiltrated by Russian intelligence”.
“These comments are unhelpful and will only affect the Russian narrative,” he told a news conference attended by reporters. I.
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