On Friday, editor-in-chief of RT and Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, published the text and the audio of a conversation among four Bundeswehr representatives discussing a potential attack on the Crimean Bridge with Taurus missiles. The talk, which took place on February 19, involved Inspector of the German air force Ingo Gerhartz, Brig. Gen. Frank Graefe, head of the operations and exercises department at the air force command in Berlin, and two employees of the air operations center of the Bundeswehr Space Command.
"This is now being investigated very thoroughly, very intensively and very quickly. That is what is necessary," Scholz told a German news agency DPA correspondent during his visit to Italy.
Earlier in the day, DPA reported that the leaked conversation between German military officers on security topics concerning Russia and Ukraine was authentic. According to the report the German military officers are believed to have held the conversation on the CISCO Webex platform.
On Friday, German newspaper Die Welt reported, citing German soldiers, that the recording was circulating in the Bundeswehr, and officials considered it authentic. German tabloid Bild in turn has reported in an article dubbed "Unbelievable Bundeswehr mishap: Russians listen in on the conversation between German generals" that there are many reasons to believe that the recording is authentic, even if the Bundeswehr has not yet officially confirmed its authenticity.
The T-online news agency reported, citing the German Defense Ministry, that the German counterintelligence was verifying the report on a possible interception of a conversation between two German officers.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commenting on the development told Sputnik that Russia demands "an explanation from Germany. Official Berlin is obliged to provide them as soon as possible."