The European Union closes to the eventuality of a reopening of the North Stream, the pipeline that transported the gas from Russia to Europe through Germany. “Our position is very clear: North Stream 2 is not a project of common interest and does not diversify energy sources,” said a spokesman for the European Commission.
Of a possible reopening of the gas pipeline, we went back to talking after the German tabloid Bild and the British newspaper Financial Times have both reported that the United States and Russia would have been dealing for weeks to restore North Stream 2. According to Bild, the special correspondent for Donald Trump, Ric Grenell, would have been repeatedly in Switzerland to meet the representatives of Gazprom, the state company. Russian who manages Russian gas.
North Stream 2 was completed in 2021, but as the spokesman for the community executive recalled, “he never provided gas to Europe” due to geopolitical tensions and the war unleashed by the Russian invasion in February 2022 to the effort of energy diversification undertaken by European countries after the invasion of Ukraine.
Involved former Russian spy
The Financial Times revealed, citing sources aware of the dossier, that a former Russian spy, close collaborator of President Vladimir Putin, would be working on a project to restart the pipeline with the support of American investors. According to the sources of the newspaper, the engine of the initiative would be Matthias Warnig, a former Stasi officer in Eastern Germany, who until 2023 managed the North Stream 2 mother company for the gas giant controlled by the Kremlin, Gazprom.
Warnig told the Financial Times of “not to be involved in any discussion with American politicians or representatives”, but the sources claim that his plan plans to contact the Trump team through US businessmen, in the field of the efforts underway behind the scenes to mediate the end of the war in Ukrainian.
According to Washington officials, some prominent exponents of the Trump administration would be aware of the initiative and would see it as part of the push to reconstruct relations with Moscow. Although there have been several manifestations of interest, a consortium of investors led by the United States would have developed the guidelines of a post-sanction agreement with Gazprom, according to a source with direct knowledge of the interviews, which refused to reveal the identity of potential investors.
In theory, the sources comment, Warnig’s plan would give the United States “an unprecedented flu” on Europe’s energy supplies, after EU countries have put an end to their addiction to Russian gas following the invasion of Ukraine.
The special correspondent for Trump
The Bild, on the other hand, states that the former American ambassador to Germany, Richard Gnelell, appointed by Trump a special presidential envoy for the United States missions, would have come unofficially several times in Switzerland to discuss an agreement. In fact, in Steinhausen there is the headquarters of the operating companies of the North Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.
The idea behind the negotiations would be the signature of a supply contract in which the United States act as intermediaries, transporting Russian gas through North Stream 2 to the western meclemburg-population. In this way, the Americans would ruin the flow of German gas and would also derive a profit. The US government would not be directly involved, but some American financial investors would be.
