Used for Nord Stream plan
Investigations into the betrayal of Bundeswehr secrets
February 18, 2024, 12:44 p.m
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The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office is currently investigating the suspicion of the publication of state secrets. This is about the number of shots fired by the German Navy, which are freely accessible on the Internet. These could also have been used for an attack on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
According to a media report, the Federal Prosecutor General is investigating the suspicion of disclosure of state secrets from the Bundeswehr in connection with the now destroyed Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The suspicion is directed against employees of the Stralsund mining authority, reported “Bild am Sonntag”. They were involved in the planning process for the gas pipeline. The newspaper cites a confidential report from the Defense Ministry to the Chancellery and the Bundestag from the end of January.
Specifically, the Federal Prosecutor General is examining a possible “publication of military information about NATO submarine operational areas.” According to “BamS”, during the planning process for the pipeline, the mining authority had assured in writing that it would ensure that “sensitive data, to the extent that it is classified as classified information, will under no circumstances be published by the authorities or passed on without authorization.” However, the office is said not to have adhered to this.
The newspaper quotes from the Defense Ministry’s report, according to which the mining authority published “the German Navy’s number of shots classified as VS-NfD (classified information – for official use only)” in the planning approval decision of January 31, 2018. This data was online on the Stralsund Mining Authority’s homepage, even though there was an “express absolute ban on passing it on”. Because the derivation of the number of shots enables conclusions to be drawn about “military operational options,” the “BamS” further quotes from the report. According to the criminal code, those responsible could face up to five years in prison.
Nord Stream has long been controversial
According to the newspaper, the information could also have been of interest to those who wanted to attack the pipeline. “Such naive dealings by German authorities with Putin’s agents is a blatant danger for Germany,” CDU domestic politician Philipp Amthor told the newspaper. “This scandalous case” must be fully investigated.
Nord Stream 2 had caused controversy for years: Germany, together with Russia, pushed ahead with construction despite the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, which violated international law – against strong protests from the USA and Eastern and Central European states such as Poland and Ukraine . In September 2022 – in the midst of geopolitical tensions surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the gas crisis in Germany and Europe – explosions tore several holes in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines laid at the bottom of the Baltic Sea It was about sabotage, but the reasons behind it are still unclear.