State government continues to be criticized for Russia course

Created: 04/20/2022Updated: 04/20/2022 18:19

Manuela Schwesig, Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

© Jens Büttner/dpa/archive image

Ever new documents from the state government in Schwerin indicate that the Gazprom subsidiary Nord Stream 2 tried by all means to push through its pipeline project.

Even argumentation aids for the approval process were provided.

Schwerin - The debate about Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's role in the construction of the Russian-German gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 continues unabated.

According to a media report, the Russian state-owned company Gazprom's plans to build a second gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea met with the open ears of the state government in Schwerin at an early stage.

As the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit" reported online on Wednesday, the Gazprom subsidiary Nord Stream 2 requested "political support" in the approval process for the billion-euro project as early as spring 2016.

"A corresponding cabinet decision is desirable in the current legislative period," the newspaper quoted from a presentation by the company to the responsible energy ministry in Schwerin just a few months before the state elections.

According to "Zeit", the presentation is one of the documents that the State Chancellery handed over to the transparency organization "FragDenstaat" on request under the Freedom of Information Act.

As the "Zeit" further reports, the Ministry of Energy for the Stralsund Mining Authority, as the responsible approval authority, specifically advertised two positions in order to be able to meet the schedule of Nord Stream 2 AG.

Such job creations are common in projects of this dimension, said the then Minister of Energy and now Minister of the Interior Christian level (SPD) to the newspaper.

According to research by "FragDenStaat", Nord Stream 2 AG put together arguments for an exemption for the route through nature reserves, which also received attention from the responsible ministries.

Construction of the approximately 1,200-kilometer-long Russian-German pipeline, which runs parallel to the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline completed in 2011, was in 2018. Threats of sanctions by the USA delayed the construction of the new pipeline, but with the help of a foundation set up by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the 2021 was completed.

However, as a reaction to Russia's war against Ukraine, the gas pipeline was not granted an operating license.

The state government led by Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) has long been criticized for its massive support for the construction of the pipeline.

In particular, Russia's influence on the founding and organization of the Climate Protection Foundation with its economic part in favor of pipeline construction repeatedly gives rise to debate.

Immediately after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, the state parliament in Schwerin decided to dissolve the foundation, which Schwesig also supported.

A special parliamentary committee is also to examine possible links between state politics and the Gazprom subsidiary Nord Stream 2.

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Schwesig through Russia course in distress

However, Schwesig, who described her partnership strategy towards Russia as a mistake from today's perspective, now received backing from business.

From an economic perspective, there were many good reasons to support the completion of Nord Stream 2.

"To act from today's perspective as if this cooperation was generally a mistake would be too short-sighted," said Oliver Hermes, chairman of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, of the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung" (Thursday).

The Soviet Union and later Russia were reliable suppliers of energy for decades and the German and European economy benefited enormously from this.

MinisterLevel also campaigned again for not seeing the actions and also the founding of the Climate and Environmental Protection Foundation MV in January 2021 in isolation from the respective time.

"From today's perspective, we would not do it again," said the level of the "Nordkurier" (Wednesday).

The then US government under President Donald Trump wanted to keep spiraling sanctions against those involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2, and medium-sized companies from MV were also threatened, for which the foundation was supposed to provide a kind of protective shield.

The Greens member of parliament Constanze Oehlrich called on the level to "make transparent the entire dimension of the influence of Nord Stream 2 AG on the contents of the foundation statutes".

In the debate about the SPD's course in the Ukraine war, the historian Ulrich Mählert called for a fundamental reappraisal of the social democratic Russia policy.

"We have to work out where in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and elsewhere Vladimir Putin's Russia was dealt with," the contemporary historian told the news portal "t-online" (Wednesday).

"The way people in Schwerin tried to cheat their way around sanctions against Nord Stream 2 is really not a highlight of our politics," stated Maehlert.

The historian advocated the establishment of a commission of inquiry in the Bundestag.

dpa