In August 2020, a man with a briefcase and a bouquet of flowers entered the Schwerin State Chancellery. He wore a blue suit and had an appointment with Manuela Schwesig, the Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Matthias Warnig, confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin and CEO of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline company, which was already highly controversial at the time, discussed the status of this billion-dollar project with the hostess.
The SPD politician Schwesig is said to have never met Putin, but when she met Warnig, the manager who is close to the Kremlin, the company and the state government agreed. “We continue to stand very clearly behind the construction of the Baltic Sea pipeline,” announced the head of government. “It is important for the energy supply in Germany.” “Don’t be intimidated,” said Schwesig in those days. She didn’t mean Moscow, but Washington, because US senators had threatened those responsible for the port of Sassnitz-Mukran on Rügen with consequences if they helped with the further construction of the gas pipeline from Russia to Lubmin near Greifswald.
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Now Russian troops are devastating Ukraine, Nord Stream 2 is history. Manuela Schwesig distanced herself to some extent weeks ago on Twitter, the start of the war fell into her break from office because of cancer aftercare. After returning, it became clearer: “Putin is a war criminal.” He deceived everyone, the attitude towards Russia was changing fundamentally, and they too had made mistakes. The support for Nord Stream 2 and the establishment of the climate foundation was wrong “from today’s point of view”.
However, among other things, the question arises as to what should have been right about the tubes and the associated foundation in yesterday’s view. Other politicians have also changed course – in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania the rejection is particularly noticeable, because there they were particularly well-disposed towards Putin’s Russia until the invasion.
Again and again threads come together here
Where did this confidence come from up front in Nord Stream 2? First Matthias Warnig headed Nord Stream AG, responsible for Nord Stream 1. At the inauguration in 2011 he was seen next to Putin’s deputy Dimitrij Medvedjew, Chancellor Angela Merkel, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, French Prime Minister François Fillon, Schwesig’s predecessor Erwin Sellering and other revelers. Most recently, Warnig was managing director of Nord Stream 2 AG, which also belongs to the Russian state-owned company Gazprom and whose supervisory board Schröder chaired.
For example, the name Warnig appears several times in the book “Putin’s Net” by the author Catherine Belton. The former Stasi officer is said to have been part of a KGB cell set up by Putin when Putin was spying for the Soviets in Dresden, and he later played “an important role in the Putin regime”. In the 1980s, Warnig recruited at least twenty agents “to elicit militarily relevant knowledge from the aerospace sector from the West.” He then went to the St. Petersburg branch of Dresdner Bank, moved into Russian supervisory and administrative boards and is considered to be close friends with Putin. One of Warnig’s employees was Vitaly Yusufov, son of Putin’s former energy minister. Years ago, Yussufow Junior bought today’s MV shipyards in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as part of a thriller before Asians took over. After another bankruptcy, before the war Yusufov’s interest was mentioned again.
Equipment for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in Lubmin on the Baltic Sea coast, which has not been put into operation.
(Photo: Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)
Again and again threads come together. Culture, sport, business, the environment, cliques pop up everywhere, often in connection with Nord Stream and money. It seems as if everyone who wanted to be something on this coast put up with it. “You come across old networks,” says young member of parliament Hannes Damm from the Greens, who rejected Nord Stream from the start. “Apparently they haven’t cleaned up here.”
Proximity to Russia was quite popular in the northeast, which explains geography and history, despite and because of Putin. Many connections had long been known, and Matthias Warnig is now on the US sanctions list. But it was already about the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, the invasion of Donbass, the bombing of Aleppo or attacks on members of the opposition when Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was still loyal to its Russian business friends. The symbols also included the annual Russia Day in Rostock, opening in 2021 by Prime Minister Schwesig, moderation by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Russia representative, greeting by Putin’s Industry Minister. Platinum sponsor: Nord Stream 2, led by Matthias Warnig.
The guests of honor also included the former Prime Minister Sellering, Chairman of the Foundation for Climate and Environmental Protection MV. This dubious climate foundation was approved by the state parliament in early 2021, although the so-called Baltic Sea Foundation has existed since 2011. Both financed by Nord Stream and Gazprom, of course.
The foundation was established primarily to circumvent US sanctions
Everyone has long known that the MV Climate Foundation was founded primarily to circumvent US sanctions and finish building Nord Stream 2. Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania paid 200,000 euros into the foundation, Nord Stream/Gazprom paid a hundredfold, 20 million euros, which should become up to 60 million euros. A vague business operation arose, as a result of which the climate foundation made purchases in the port of Rostock and even acquired a special ship that Blue Ship. “Due to the behavior of the USA, this operation was unfortunately necessary,” Sellering wrote in early 2022. Russia’s army was stationed at the Ukrainian border. “Mission accomplished. Nord Stream 2 is ready for delivery.” The red-red Schwesig cabinet did not object.
Meanwhile, the Schwesig government wants to wind up the pipeline foundation as quickly as possible. Sellering, who is also chairman of a German-Russian partnership association, is also rowing back and giving up his Russian medal. However, at the request of the Süddeutsche Zeitung known: “I assume that no one plans to dissolve the foundation before there is clarity on the legal issues.” It is unclear, for example, what will happen to the money from Nord Stream 2. Incidentally, Sellering, an apparently Russia-friendly CDU politician and the daughter of a former NVA colonel, suspected Stasi man and later entrepreneur, is on the foundation’s board of directors.
The CDU, Greens and FDP are planning a committee of inquiry because of the foundation. When Manuela Schwesig posted a photo of Schwerin Castle during her absence, illuminated in the Ukrainian national colors, and wrote about solidarity with Ukraine, her ambassador replied Andriy Melnyk: “The hypocrisy sucks.”