alias “bull”
Nord Stream 2 communicator was a Stasi informer
06/18/2022, 02:27 am
The former communications chief of Nord Stream 2 in Germany, Steffen Ebert, was reportedly an unofficial Stasi agent in the 1980s. Ebert explains himself to the “Bild” and expresses the expectation that his work will be considered “in the context of that time”.
According to a media report, the former head of communications for the German-Russian Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 2, which has been put on hold, was an unofficial Stasi employee (IM) in the 1980s. As the “Bild” newspaper reports, citing a file from the Stasi documents archive, Steffen Ebert, who has been in charge of communications for many years at Nord Stream 2, committed himself in 1984 to working with the GDR secret service. According to the report, Ebert confirmed his Stasi activity.
Ebert told the newspaper that he was “abused by the Stasi” like “usually almost all” conscripts in the National People’s Army. Today he regrets having passed on information about others to the Stasi. In addition, Ebert, who is now 57, added that “like many people in the GDR, I became a victim of the indoctrination of the system in my unsuspecting manner.” He therefore expects “that this will also be considered in the context of that time”. In 1987, Ebert, who had chosen the alias “Stier”, declined further IM work for “reasons of conscience”, according to the report.
Nord Stream 2 was supposed to bring Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany, bypassing Ukraine. In view of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the federal government had stopped the approval process for the pipeline project. The pipeline had been under criticism for many years before the war of aggression began. The USA had tried to stop them.
Ebert applies, as the report says, after the disclosure of internal emails as the central liaison of Nord Stream 2 to the Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Manuela Schwesig, and the state government. This had recently commented on relevant decisions. Schwesig admitted that from today’s perspective “sticking to Nord Stream 2 was a mistake”. “Including the establishment of the foundation that should enable the completion of the pipeline.”