After Putin’s Accusations, Germany Pushes Back

“It is the opposite,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on the sidelines of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Wicklow, Ireland, rejecting Vladimir Putin’s accusation that Berlin had fabricated evidence against Moscow.

Germany formally held Russia responsible on Tuesday for the Aug. 4 incident and announced punitive measures. Putin dismissed both the accusations and the evidence presented so far, saying it had been falsified. He also argued that Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government had reacted mainly for domestic political reasons.

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It is the opposite.

Berlin’s statement came several weeks after a drone packed with explosives was found near cargo aircraft at Leipzig-Halle Airport. It also preceded important elections in three German states. Voters in Saxony-Anhalt, in eastern Germany, will elect a new regional government on Sunday. Two weeks later, elections are scheduled in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and in the city-state of Berlin.

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Fabricated

Both Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania belonged to the former communist East Germany, where some people still hold pro-Russian views. Wadephul rejected the suggestion that the government had chosen the timing for tactical electoral reasons. If officials had taken the elections into account, he said, they might instead have avoided making the accusation now because it “naturally causes a great deal of debate, especially during election campaigns in eastern Germany.”

Wadephul said EU colleagues had strongly backed Germany after Berlin announced plans to close Russia’s general consulate in Bonn and a Russian cultural institution in Berlin. France, the Netherlands and Finland were among the EU members that also summoned Russian diplomatic representatives over the Leipzig attack, he said.

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Naturally causes a great deal of debate, especially during election campaigns in eastern Germany.