Kremlin Swivels Its Verbal Firepower to Germany From America

Next week, Russia is to stop all deliveries of Kazakh oil to Germany, cutting off supplies to a refinery that fuels 90 percent of cars in Berlin. Last week, Russia’s defense ministry posted the street addresses of German companies that make military equipment for Ukraine. The posting all but invited the kind of arson and bomb attacks that increasingly plague European defense companies.The Kremlin is switching its focus of vitriol to Germany from the United States. On one level, Germany is now the top military aid supplier to Ukraine. Last year, President Trump cut off all military aid to Ukraine. On a larger level, Germany under Chancellor Friedrich Merz identifies Russia as Germany’s primary security threat. Embarking on a $1 trillion, five-year defense spending program, Germany’s government plans to build Europe’s largest army.“Our goal is to become the strongest conventional army in Europe,” the German defense minister, Boris Pistorius, promised yesterday at a press conference at Berlin. Aiming for a military of nearly half a million soldiers by 2039, he said: “Obviously, automation and artificial intelligence will influence our planning, the number of soldiers, and their qualifications.” This week, the first Ukrainian soldiers with combat experience started training units of Germany’s military, or Bundeswehr. It is part of Europe’s fastest militarization since World War II. Further focusing Kremlin attention on Germany, Mr. Merz seeks to shift Germany’s declining car industry to armaments production. Stock prices of German arms makers jumped over the last year. German government figures indicate that nearly 90 percent of European venture capital invested in defense technology flows to German companies.Germany’s staunch support of Ukraine contrasts sharply with the Trump Administration’s standoffish views of the country. Last week, Vice President Vance told a Turning Point USA gathering in Georgia that cutting off aid to Ukraine is “one of the things I’m proudest that we’ve done in this Administration.” On the larger level, European reluctance to take part in Washington’s war on Iran has prompted Mr. Trump to cast doubt on whether America would help defend Europe against Russia.After the Trump Administration shifted to a neutral stance, the Kremlin shifted to open hostility toward Germany. “Proudly, joyfully, they demonstrate how German drones, manufactured at German factories, will now be killing Russians,” Russia’s state TV talk show host Vladimir Solovyov said after a Ukrainian-German drone joint venture was announced. “Drones that will bring death to the civilian population of Russia will not only bear a Ukrainian flag, but a German flag as well.”In December, Germany announced a $2.3 billion “Build with Ukraine” program. Many of the joint ventures opt to build in Ukraine, presuming the factories to be out of the reach of Russian attacks. Just last week, when President Volodymyr Zelensky was visiting Berlin, three German-Ukrainian joint ventures were announced for production of drone interceptors.“We have proposed to Germany a bilateral drone deal covering various types of drones, missiles, software and modern defense systems,” Mr. Zelensky said at a joint news conference with Mr. Merz at Berlin. “Our teams are starting concrete work.” From the German side, Mr. Merz said: “No defense industry has become more innovative than Ukraine’s. Through our support, we are strengthening both German and European defense capabilities and our industrial base.”Accompanying Ukraine’s president, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov signed a $4.7 billion air defense package with Germany, an agreement to allow Kyiv to buy several hundred American-made Patriot missiles. Berlin also agreed to invest several hundred million dollars to finance deep-strike capabilities for use against Russia.The day after the Ukrainian delegation left Germany for Italy, Russia’s Defense Ministry posted the addresses of German arms manufacturers. The ministry said it was for the “safety” of Germans living nearby. Over the last year, there have been a rash of arson and cyber attacks on European defense plants.Russia’s former president, Dmitry Medvedev, posted his clarification on X. “The Defense Ministry statement must be taken literally: the list of European facilities which make drones & other equipment is a list of potential targets for the Russian armed forces,” wrote Mr. Medvedev who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council. “When strikes become a reality depends on what comes next. Sleep well, European partners.”In the fall of last year, Germany’s foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, forecast that Russia could launch a formal attack on NATO by 2029. Mr. Merz told business leaders at the time: “The threats are real. We’re not at war, but we no longer live in peacetime.”Kremlin propagandist Mr. Solovyov responded with a nationally broadcast primetime rant: “Merz should be destroyed. Wadephul should be destroyed.” Referring to the European Commission president, a German politician, he charged: “Ursula von der Leyen is building another Reich.” Germany refuses to back down. On Monday, Germany’s foreign ministry called in Russia’s ambassador, Sergei Nechayev, to deliver a formal complaint.“Direct threats from Russia against targets in Germany are an attempt to weaken our support for Ukraine and test our unity,” the foreign ministry posted on X. “Our response is clear: we will not be intimidated. Such threats, and all forms of espionage activities in Germany, are completely unacceptable.”Given the tenor of the times, Kremlin watchers plan to analyze official rhetoric used during the annual Red Square parade celebrating the May 9, 1945, Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. After 81 years, anti-Nazi rhetoric could morph into anti-German.

Kremlin Swivels Its Verbal Firepower to Germany From America

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