Germany's Nord Stream 2 exposure: A chronicle of costly missteps

Germany's insistence on creating Nord Stream 2 has earned it a reputation as a country either blind to Russian aggression or too enamored with potential profits. The "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" reports that the daily has won a legal battle and gained access to confidential documents, depicting what it calls a "chronicle of a historic mistake."

The newspaper recalls that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government consistently maintained that the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was a "private business venture." However, previously confidential documents—revealed by the newspaper—indicate how heavily the authorities were involved in the pipeline's construction and how closely they cooperated with the company responsible for it.

"SZ" obtained the documents after winning a court case against the German Ministry of Economic Affairs.

For the first time, these documents reveal how persistently Merkel and her ministers, including future Chancellor Olaf Scholz, pushed the project forward. Neither resistance from Eastern European countries, Brussels, nor Washington, nor the nefarious actions of Putin's regime, could alter their resolve, the daily describes.

Nord Stream 2 was ready by early September 2021. Russia argued that the pipeline could enhance energy security in Europe, and in 2022, Putin claimed it was not a political project but purely a commercial one. The pipeline was sharply criticized by some Baltic countries from the start and was ultimately never launched.

A note from the German Ministry of Economic Affairs, now revealed by "Sueddeutsche Zeitung," indicated that Germany would remain dependent on gas imports from Russia for the foreseeable future. "A complete abandonment of Russian resources will be unattainable for years and decades," the document stated.

Instead of reducing dependence on Moscow, the German government is increasing it, stated the previously secret note.

According to "SZ," the documents show that the German Ministry of Economic Affairs was mainly involved in the supposedly private project Nord Stream 2.

The newspaper describes how, when Nord Stream lobbyists went to Washington in 2016, the then-German ambassador to the United States, Peter Wittig, defended the planned pipeline at a meeting with critically minded experts, warning against "portraying it as a politically motivated German-Russian project."

Angela Merkel reportedly felt pressure from her allies regarding the pipeline at almost every meeting.

According to "SZ," notes from speeches validate this claim. "We are aware of the political dimension of this project and take our partners' concerns seriously, without engaging in a discussion to prevent (this endeavor)," stated notes prepared for a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło in April 2017.

As early as June 2021, the Polish parliament pointed out the deployment of Russian troops at the Ukrainian border and the threat of a serious armed conflict at the EU's borders, the daily recalls.

On October 26, 2021, the German Ministry of Economic Affairs completed a "supply security review." The conclusions of this analysis are unambiguous: there is nothing to prevent the pipeline from being ultimately approved. However, a few months later, Russia conducted a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the pipeline was never launched.

In February 2022, Germany halted the certification process of Nord Stream 2, which was supposed to lead to the pipeline's operation, in response to Russia's recognition of two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine. Chancellor Olaf Scholz made the decision.