Ties between Germany, Russia enter new chill

BERLIN: At an hour-long meeting in Moscow on March 23, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov irritated his German counterpart by raising the case of a German-Russian girl who said she was raped by migrants in Berlin earlier this year.

After the girl´s claims were reported by Russian media in January, Lavrov accused Germany of "sweeping problems under the rug."

The Berlin public prosecutor´s office, though, said a medical examination had found the girl had not been raped.

That was why Germany´s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was so upset when Lavrov raised the issue again.

"I can only hope that such incidents and difficulties, as we had in that case, aren´t repeated," he told reporters afterwards.

The rape case is indicative of the mutual suspicion that officials from both countries say extends to the highest levels of government.

At the root of those tensions lie opposing visions for Europe and the Middle East.

Those rival visions have led to clashes at diplomatic negotiating tables, in cyberspace and in the media.

German and other European security officials accuse Russian media of launching what they call an "information war" against Germany.

By twisting the truth in reports on Germany´s migrant crisis, the officials say, Russia hopes to fuel popular angst, weaken voters´ trust in Chancellor Angela Merkel, and feed divisions in the European Union so that it drops sanctions against Moscow.

"Russian propaganda is a danger to the cohesion of our society," Ole Schroeder, German deputy interior minister and a member of Merkel´s conservatives, told Reuters.

Russian officials deny their country is mounting a campaign against Germany.

"These accusations are atrocious," said one Russian official, who said Moscow is the victim of an "indiscriminate information war" being waged from Germany.

In February, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, denied the Kremlin had exploited the rape case to stir up tensions around immigration in Germany.

"We cannot agree with such accusations," Peskov said.

"On the contrary, we were keen that our position be understood, we were talking about a citizen of the Russian Federation.

Any country expresses its concerns in such cases. It would be wrong to look for any hidden agenda."

But officials in Berlin say Russia´s aim is to muddy what is true and what is not and shake Germans´ trust in Merkel.

"The idea today is to get disinformation, which means you don´t believe anything," Hans-Peter Hinrichsen, a Foreign Ministry official, told a recent meeting on Russia´s role in Europe at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP).