Berlin\u2019s Moscow accusation rests on credibility Germany\u2019s leaders don\u2019t have<\/p>\n
Berlin has officially blamed a murky drone incident at the Leipzig-Halle airport on Moscow. However, as unbiased observers agree, the German authorities have not published any actual evidence to back up this accusation. Instead, they have relied on unsubstantiated claims and what seems to be the systematic management of the public mood via leaks and speculation.\u00a0
\nThe stakes are high: Berlin has taken substantial punitive measures against Russia; Moscow has responded in kind. More importantly, Russian government representatives have been explicit about considering the German allegations and initiatives a deliberate escalation.
\nGermany\u2019s mainstream media are even more hysterical than usual: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, once the country\u2019s flagship of serious conservative-centrist journalism, is comparing the Leipzig-Halle incident \u2013 which resulted in zero casualties or damage \u2013 with the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US.
\nAgainst this backdrop of Germany\u2019s umpteenth moral panic about Russia stampeding through the establishment, hardly anyone even notices that the prominent Ukrainian dissident journalist Anatolij Sharij \u2013 long exiled and under permanent threat from the Zelensky regime \u2013 has unearthed an eyewitness report about the events at Leipzig-Halle that contradicts the German official and mainstream accounts and even features details pointing to stage-managing and, in short, the possibility that it was faked.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Berlin\u2019s latest Russia panic is reckless even by its own standards<\/p>\n
The German authorities, meanwhile, are staying the course. Not by presenting evidence, which is much talked about yet never shown, but by demanding, in effect, blind faith. In that spirit, the parliamentary domestic policy spokesman of the co-governing Social Democrats (SPD) Sebastian Fiedler has brought out things with commendable if self-sacrificing clarity.
\nRejecting, in effect, demands for proof, Fiedler\u2019s key argument \u2013 of sorts \u2013 is an odd claim: if German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt publicly state that Russia is to blame, then \u201cyou can be certain [\u2026] that Russia really is to blame.\u201d
\nIn other words, once top representatives of the Berlin government stake their credibility for all the world to see, we simply must believe whatever they say because \u2013 as it\u2019s obviously implied \u2013 they always speak the truth. Further questions are \u2013 according to the unspoken yet unsubtle message \u2013 at least superfluous, probably unpatriotic, and perhaps even VERBOTEN!<\/p>\n
Police investigators work on the tarmac with a robot capable of defusing explosives near a Ukrainian Antonov cargo plane at Leipzig\/Halle Airport on August 5, 2026 near Leipzig, Germany.<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0 Jens Schlueter \/ Getty Images <\/p>\n
Now, that is an intriguing move indeed; let\u2019s call it the Fiedler Dare. For one thing, it is extremely counterintuitive, because it means that German politicians never lie when the stakes are high. In general, though, history \u2013 and the present, too \u2013 really teaches the opposite about politics in general and everywhere: precisely when the stakes are high, lying becomes more likely, more brazen, and more obstinate. Is Fiedler suggesting that Berlin government representatives are the global exception? A superior kind of political animal?
\nLuckily, the other thing that makes Fiedler\u2019s astonishing claim so fascinating is that it is eminently falsifiable. Not on one but two levels: Do the two individuals mentioned explicitly always stick to the facts and only the facts? And do German government members in general?<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Faith in fakes: How anti-Russian hysteria is driving the EU\u2019s drone hoax<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with the general issue, because it neatly brings into focus yet another German minister who has also staked his credibility by accusing Russia of the Leipzig-Halle airport incident: Johannes \u201cRussia-will-always-be-our-enemy\u201d Wadephul, the head of what now counts for diplomacy in Germany and probably makes Otto von Bismarck and Friedrich Genscher turn in their graves.
\nIn Wadephul\u2019s case, we have a recent case of spreading a very politicized and harmful untruth and, moreover, never correcting his (presumably) mistake. As recently as February, Wadephul was among several foreign ministers falling \u2013 whether unknowingly or knowingly \u2013 for an Israel-adjacent disinformation campaign smearing UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese by crudely misquoting her.
\nHaving called, in effect, for her dismissal \u2013 based on always bizarre accusations quickly proven as false \u2013 Wadephul, moreover, has never publicly retracted or apologized or even quietly corrected his position: his X post with the original smear is still up.
\nThe Fiedler Dare vs Reality: 0:1
\n\u00a0One of the two ministers publicly accusing Russia of the Leipzig-Halle incident does not always tell us the truth, not even when he speaks publicly. Indeed, he doesn\u2019t even let go of his falsehood when proven wrong. What about Dobrindt and Merz, then?
\nDobrindt has had a long career in politics already. So long, in fact that almost a decade ago, one of Germany\u2019s primary weeklies, Die Zeit, found he was \u201cunfit by character\u201d for his then-office as federal minister of transport. Ouch. Zeit\u2019s reason: Dobrindt had \u201cconcealed\u201d an impending bankruptcy \u201cfor years\u201d to promote privatization schemes. Water under the bridge or maybe traffic jams under the autobahn overpass? Hardly, as there are no signs that Dobrindt has changed.
\nFiedler Dare vs. Reality: 0:2
\nAnd then, there is Merz. He is, of course, the German leader who has been publicly and often derided as \u201cLying Fritz\u201d (\u201cL\u00fcgenfritz\u201d), notwithstanding the fact that, in at least one case, a German citizen has been prosecuted and punished for this statement in a case that critics have rightly identified as an attack on freedom of opinion. In general, Merz is historically unpopular: Only 14% of voters think he is the right man for his job, and even in his own CDU party, only a minority still believe in him.<\/p>\n
A Police investigator works on the tarmac near to Ukrainian Antonov cargo plane at Leipzig\/Halle Airport on August 5, 2026 near Leipzig, Germany.<\/p>\n
\u00a9\u00a0 Jens Schlueter \/ Getty Images <\/p>\n
No chancellor with reliable polling before him has been as widely and deeply disliked. One, perhaps the main reason is that, whether Merz likes it or not, many Germans see him as notoriously dishonest, with a record of broken promises that is unusual even for a professional politician. They feel that the examples of Merz\u2019s extraordinarily difficult relationship with the truth could be multiplied ad infinitum.
\nYet let\u2019s be concrete: Just days after winning the last elections, if rather ingloriously, Merz reiterated one of his core campaign promises: that Germany\u2019s \u201cdebt brake\u201d \u2013 a tight cap on public spending via credit and, formerly, an essential piece of conservative identity \u2013 was untouchable. A few weeks later he razed it to the ground, with a maneuver, moreover, that may be formally legal but certainly defied the spirit of the constitution by remobilizing parliamentary majorities already voted out.
\nFiedler Dare vs. reality 0:3
\nTrust, Mr. Fiedler may want to take note, is an earned thing. And puffing yourself up about the trust you and your government deserve, when you clearly do not, is not only a little silly but also very counterproductive. All it does with the more skeptical kind of voter \u2013 of whom Germany has very many now \u2013 is remind them just how unreliable you are. And that is the path to further defeat. Let\u2019s hope for the best. \u00a0\u00a0
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