North Stream 2 reports: Federal government is holding back – politics
In the morning it is the Federal Minister of Defense who sets the tone. On Deutschlandfunk, Boris Pistorius is asked what he thinks of the new reports about the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines. He took note of them with “great interest,” says the SPD politician. But now you have to “wait and see what is really confirmed,” he warns. Interest and caution – that’s the mood in Berlin according to the report New York Times about secret service findings, according to which a “pro-Ukrainian” group was behind the attacks, and research by ARD, SWR and Time with details on the possible course of action of the attacks. The Attorney General has been investigating the matter since the beginning of October. The results could contain some political explosives and are eagerly awaited. In fact, the federal prosecutor’s office confirmed on Wednesday morning that they had a suspicious ship searched in January. There is a suspicion that it could have been used to transport explosive devices.
Depending on where the tracks lead, the federal government expect complications. This applies both in the event that state agencies of an ally would be involved and in a constellation in which the leadership of Ukraine would be involved. “The identity of the perpetrators and their motives are the subject of the ongoing investigations. Reliable statements on this, especially on the question of state control, cannot be made at the moment,” said the federal prosecutor’s office. This is also not clear from the media reports. “It’s no use for us to think about what impact this would have on our support for Ukraine on the basis of such research, which must have been painstakingly and meticulously done,” Pistorius clarified.
“Of course we follow all reports and also all findings that there are from different actors very, very intensively,” said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) from Erbil in the Iraqi Kurdish region. First, however, the competent authorities would have to complete their investigations. This is necessary so that “the government can then make assessments based on these findings and not hastily draw conclusions for ourselves from reports”. Both Pistorius and Baerbock seem to agree that the background to the pipeline attacks will not remain in the dark but will be clarified.
The opposition also urges restraint
“The investigative authorities are working flat out,” says Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, the FDP parliamentary group leader and future German ambassador in Moscow. “However, the fact that interim results are published can damage the success of the investigation,” he warns. Which results would ultimately be reliable and, above all, provable is “currently still completely open”. The opposition sees it that way too. “The current reports remain speculation, the content of which cannot be verified. Foreign policy conclusions or consequences cannot be derived from them,” said the vice-chairman of the Union faction in the Bundestag, Johann Wadephul Süddeutsche Zeitung. However, the new reports showed two things: “On the one hand, how vulnerable our critical infrastructure is, and on the other hand, how weak our reconnaissance services are.” In both areas, the German authorities must “become faster and more effective”. That belongs “in the specifications of Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius”.
