German Press Cries 'Russia' After Bundeswehr Faces Rape Allegation in Lithuania

February 22, 2017
The German media was too quick to point the finger at Russia after a "fake news story" emerged about Bundeswehr soldiers in Lithuania, German film-maker and columnist Uli Gellerman told Sputnik Deutschland.Last Thursday, the German magazine Der Spiegel published allegations from an anonymous source that German troops in Lithuania had been the target of a "fake news" attack. 
According to the report, anonymous emails had been sent to Lithuanian politicians and news outlets, alleging that German soldiers had raped a girl in the town of Jonava. 

German soldiers are stationed at a military base in the nearby town of Rukla. The Bundeswehr is leading a 1,000 strong troop battalion that was deployed to Lithuania earlier this month as part of NATO's Atlantic Resolve mission. 


NATO battalions have also been deployed to Estonia, Latvia and Poland, in the biggest military build-up in Eastern Europe since the end of the Cold War.

Anonymous sources in the German defense ministry told Der Spiegel that on February 14, emails were sent to the President of the Lithuanian parliament and several news outlets, which described in detail the rape of a young Lithuanian girl in Jonava on February 9. Without any evidence, they blamed Russia for the emails.According to these "anonymous sources," the report was investigated by the Lithuanian government, which checked with the police and the Bundeswehr and found no record of the crime. 

NATO immediately characterized the episode as a "fake news" story orchestrated by Russia, despite no evidence of Russian involvement. 

Without any further investigation into the allegations, Der Spiegel and other German news outlets decided to publish NATO's accusation as fact. None of them were able to produce evidence that the emails had even existed, let alone Russian involvement.
Der Spiegel's initial headline for the story was "Russia attacks the Bundeswehr with fake news Campaign," which was later changed to "NATO suspects Russia is behind a fake news campaign against the Bundeswehr.""Russia said to have spread rumors of rape by German soldiers," the magazine Stern wrote. 

German film-maker and columnist Uli Gellerman told Sputnik Deutschland that the episode is typical of anti-Russian hysteria among the German press, which were quick to peddle NATO's accusation.

"The information about the brutal attack by the brutal Russians struck German editorial offices like a bomb. Since nobody was there to defuse it, the explosives were simply thrown further.""It is for exactly these kinds of aggressive attacks from nowhere that the EU has created the 'East StratCom Task Force,' a media group straight out of the Cold War. After all, the European Parliament says, 'The Russian strategy against its neighbors is becoming more aggressive and resolute,'" Gellerman said. The German press is following a now-established playbook in making these kinds of unsubstantiated claims against Russia. Following the election of Donald Trump in November, German domestic security agency chief Hans-George Maassen went public with concerns that Russia may try to influence elections in Germany next fall, despite no evidence to support the claim. 

German news outlets including the Berliner Morgenpost and Deutsche Welle reported the claim and pointed to similar unsubstantiated allegations made about "Russian hackers" involvement in the recent election in the US.Although he admitted he doesn't have any proof, Maassen, head of Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), repeated his concern last month. He made the announcement on the same day as NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced his organization is facing an increasing number of state-sponsored cyberattacks, although he didn't say who carried them out.
Despite these extreme efforts to accuse Russia of orchestrating a "disinformation campaign," a joint investigation by Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has failed to produce any conclusive evidence of Russia perpetrating a disinformation campaign against the German federal government.

According to Süddeutsche Zeitung, the security agencies were initially planning to at least partially disclose their findings to the public, but due to the utter lack of evidence – or “smoking gun”, as the government officials put it – they chose not to publish the investigation report at all.

Mehmood

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