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On the day that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was laid to rest in Moscow, Russian state media leaked an audio recording of German military officers discussing the hypothetical use of Taurus long-range missiles in Ukraine.
The conversation on a sensitive subject was never meant to be public, and the leak has embarrassed Germany and raised concerns about the security of its communications.
Furious with Germany, Moscow levelled threats in response.
"If nothing is done, and the German people do not stop this, then there will be dire consequences first and foremost for Germany itself," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
The Kremlin went on to say the recording shows Germany's armed forces were discussing plans to launch strikes on Russian territory, and questioned whether this was government policy or whether German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had lost control of the situation.
In turn, Germany vehemently rejected the allegation was an indication Berlin was preparing for war against Russia.
"This is absurdly infamous Russian propaganda," a spokesman for Mr Scholz told reporters in Berlin.
In fact, the German officers discussed sending the Taurus missiles only in theory. Germany has not approved deploying the weapons despite months of pressure from Ukraine.
Here is a look at the fallout from what German media is calling the "wire-tapping affair" and the Taurus missiles at the heart of the tensions.
What are Taurus missiles?
Equipped with stealth technology that makes them less visible to detection, the missiles have a range of up to 500 kilometres, which would help Ukraine put pressure on Russia in the Black Sea and elsewhere.
Taurus is shorthand for Target Adaptive Unitary and dispenser Robotic Ubiquity System and in Latin, taurus means "bull".
The German and Swedish-made missiles would be able to reach targets deep in Russia from Ukrainian soil.
Ukraine has been asking Germany for the missiles to complement the long-range Storm Shadow missiles sent by Britain and France's nearly identical Scalp cruise missiles.
The UK announced last spring that it was sending Storm Shadows, which have a range of more than 250km and give Ukraine capacity to strike well behind the front lines, including in Russia-occupied Crimea. Ukraine pledged not to use the missiles to attack Russia itself.
France followed Britain by sending its Scalp missiles, giving assurances they would not be capable of hitting Russian soil. Paris recently announced the delivery of 40 additional Scalp missiles.
What is Germany's position on sending missiles to Ukraine?
Germany is the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States and is further stepping up support this year. But Mr Scholz has refused to send the Taurus missiles. Last week, he said sending the missiles would pose a risk of his country becoming directly involved in the war.
"German soldiers must at no point and in no place be linked to targets this system reaches," he said last week.
Some members of the conservative opposition, and even some in his socially liberal three-party coalition, want to send the missiles to Ukraine. But the idea is not popular with the public.
German media have suggested that by not allowing the Taurus weapons to be sent to Ukraine the unpopular chancellor was trying to distinguish himself domestically as "Friedenskanzler" or "peace chancellor" ahead of June elections to the European Parliament.
"Many people are afraid the war could spread. Scholz has long been aware of this sentiment," the news magazine Der Spiegel wrote on Friday.
"He wants to show them: I am aware of you and your worries."
For military strategists, there are other concerns.
Gustav Gressel, a senior policy fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in a note earlier this year that while the UK and France are already developing successors to their Storm Shadows and Scalps, Germany does not have yet have a successor to the Taurus.
Germans fear that their stocks of Taurus missiles could be depleted, he argued, and that "Russians would see the missile in operation in Ukraine and gain insights into the missile's countermeasures and stealth characteristics".
What's in the leaked audio?
The 38-minute recording was published by Margarita Simonyan, chief editor of Russian state-funded television channel RT, on social media on Friday, the same day Mr Navalny was laid to rest after his still-unexplained death two weeks earlier in an Arctic penal colony.
It surfaced just weeks before Russia's presidential election.
In the audio, the head of Germany's air force, Ingo Gerhartz, can be heard discussing deployment scenarios for Taurus missiles in Ukraine with three colleagues ahead of a meeting with Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.
The conversation took place February 19, according to Simonyan.
The four military officers discuss how Taurus missiles could be used by Kyiv against invading Russian forces and how Germany would need to support Ukraine technically.
At the start of the conversation, which was hosted on the video conferencing platform WebEx, there is a lot of small talk.
One participant connected from Singapore. "It is quite humid here," he says.
The four then start preparing a briefing on the Taurus weapons system for Mr Pistorius, seeking to coordinate their messages and agreeing to prepare some slides to better visualise the situation.
"If we ever decide politically to support Ukraine with it (the Taurus missiles), how would all of this work?" one officer asked.
"We should not only talk about problems but also about solutions."
The four then discuss various issues that would need to be taken into consideration, including delivery, training and timing. They go into detail about what Ukraine would theoretically need the system for, such as targeting "a bridge in the east" or an "ammunition depot."
In the course of the discussion, it becomes clear that they are referring to the Kerch Bridge linking Russia and occupied Crimea. One of the officials says that training to target the bridge, which is "as big as an airfield," would likely take longer.
They also discuss potential red lines for German politicians, including a desire to avoid the military being seen as directly involved.
The officers say the rapid deployment of Taurus missiles would only be possible with the participation of German soldiers — and that training Ukrainian soldiers to deploy the Taurus on their own would be possible, but would take months.
The discussions also included details of allies' operations, such as the fact British personnel were deployed in Ukraine and how the Storm Shadow and Scalp missiles were deployed there.
One official talks about the fact Britain is already handling for France the satellite data needed for Ukraine to program the missiles.
The recording makes clear that the German government has not given its OK for the delivery of the cruise missiles sought by Ukraine.
LoadingHow has Germany reacted?
German officials have not claimed that the audio is fabricated, which has widely been taken to mean that the recording is authentic.
For hours after the audio was published on Friday by Russian media, German officials did not react at all. Then on Saturday, the Defence Ministry said it was investigating, and Mr Scholz called it a "very serious matter" that required quick clarification.
Defence Minister Pistorius followed up on Sunday by denouncing the leak as an act of "information warfare" against the West and said the aim was to sow discord within Germany.
He said it was no coincidence that the recording leaked on the day of Mr Navalny's funeral.
"It is a hybrid attack aimed at disinformation," Mr Pistorius said. "This is clearly about undermining our unity."
Germany's allies have not publicly criticised the leak. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told reporters it was a matter for Germany to investigate and Britain would continue to work together with Germany to support Ukraine.
But former British defence secretary Ben Wallace was quoted by The Times as saying the incident demonstrated Germany was "neither secure nor reliable".
Others have denounced the fact military secrets were discussed via a standard off-the-shelf platform like WebEx, saying this demonstrates a systematic underestimation in Germany of security threats.
AP/Reuters