patrick.net

The authorities of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern violated the law when they approved the construction permit for the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Details: An expert report designed to assess the safety of Nord Stream 2 construction was prepared in September 2021, five months before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The report was to be prepared by BOS Baustoff & Off-Shore Service GmbH, whose executive director is Lasse Petersen. His brother Steffen is known to have headed the Climate and Environment Protection Fund (the "climate fund"), which lobbied for the completion of Nord Stream 2 in Germany.

BOS claims that the report on the pipeline was prepared by "independent third-party experts". The contractor, according to the documents at the disposal of FAZ, turned out to be Nils B. - who, however, previously worked at the operating company "North Stream 2" Nord Stream 2 AG.

"If the person who helped build the pipeline later led its evaluation - how independent can that be?" - it is noted in the article.

FAZ also obtained documents confirming Nils B.'s correspondence with Nord Stream 2 AG's lawyer. In one of them, a representative of the operator company sends "proposals for adjustments."

The FAZ documents also show that there appears to have been a close relationship between the company and the Mining Authority in the city of Stralsund in Western Pomerania, which was responsible for obtaining the permit, raising further doubts about the independence of the report.

In addition, the Stralsund Mining Authority, on behalf of Nord Stream 2 AG, asked the German Armed Forces for the coordinates of NATO submarine dive sites in the region - information that Russia could have obtained.

A specially created investigative commission is investigating these circumstances, but they say that those involved are not cooperating and are hindering the work of the investigation. For example, many emails and documents of the "climate fund" were destroyed or deleted.

As a reminder, the Climate and Environment Protection Fund was established in 2021 by the government of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It was intended to complete the construction of Nord Stream-2 to bypass US sanctions.

The fund received a €20 million contribution from Nord Stream 2 AG and another €200,000 from the state government of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and had a commercial arm to purchase the assets needed to complete the project, including vessels and technology, as well as settlement with Nord Stream 2 AG.

After the USA introduced sanctions against the operator company "Nord Stream-2" in February 2022 and it effectively ceased to exist, the "climate fund" announced its liquidation.