London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Only 4 months before war, Germany claimed Russian gas pipeline posed no risk

Only 4 months before war, Germany claimed Russian gas pipeline posed no risk

Nord Stream 2, designed to ferry natural gas directly from Russia to northern Germany, ‘does not jeopardize’ gas supplies in Germany and the EU, according to controversial opinion by previous government.
The German government on Thursday declassified a top-secret security assessment on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from 2021, only four months before the outbreak of war, which claimed energy supplies “won’t be jeopardized” by increased dependency on Russian gas.

The document, dated October 26, 2021, was adopted in the final days of former Chancellor Angela Merkel's outgoing government, in which Germany’s current leader Olaf Scholz played a key role as vice chancellor.

The controversial opinion displays an exceedingly naive view of the risks posed by Germany's significant reliance on Russian gas deliveries, which had continuously grown in the years prior to Moscow's war. It also rejects concerns by Eastern European partners like Poland and Ukraine, which had long warned the Nord Stream 2 undersea pipeline designed to carry natural gas directly from Russia to northern Germany would increase the risk of energy blackmail by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Overall, the assessment comes to the conclusion that the granting of certification [for Nord Stream 2] does not jeopardize the security of gas supply in Germany and the European Union," the document reads.

"For both the German and neighboring markets, the risk of serious impairments to supply security due to the failure of individual import supply infrastructures is very limited," the government paper adds — an assessment belied by the current halt in Russian gas deliveries to Germany and the resulting gas scarcity and energy crisis, which forced Berlin to adopt a massive, unprecedented €200 billion gas price relief package earlier this month to shield households and companies from soaring prices.

Instead, the opinion claims that Nord Stream 2 would “increase the resilience of the European gas supply system by providing an additional capacity buffer for peak demand.”

While the assessment does consider a scenario under which Russia cuts gas flows to Europe, it classifies such a risk as very low, stressing that “gas deliveries from the Soviet Union and later from Russia to Germany have been reliable and contractual for decades, even in times of political tension.”

Moreover, the paper stresses that liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in other EU countries like Belgium or France could substitute 71 percent of Russian gas flows if needed — although that conclusion is based on the assumption that sufficient LNG shipments could be found immediately.

The government opinion dismissed concerns that Russia’s state-controlled gas supplier Gazprom would violate delivery contracts or EU law, suggesting German regulators could simply intervene and reason with the Russians — a misguided assertion in retrospect.

The publication of the explosive assessment comes after journalists from German magazine Der Spiegel requested access to the document and threatened to take the government to court if it did not publish the file.

But the timing of the release is problematic for Scholz, who claimed this Tuesday that he "was always sure" Putin would use energy supplies "as a weapon."

Scholz's bold claim had already triggered criticism due to his top role in the previous government and his track record of having promoted and defended Nord Stream 2 until early this year. Although the government assessment was written by the economy ministry under former minister Peter Altmaier, from Merkel's Christian Democratic Party (CDU), it will pose questions about how closely Scholz was involved in its approval as the former vice chancellor.

A spokesperson for Scholz could not be reached for an immediate comment.

Germany withdrew the controversial security assessment and pulled the plug on Nord Stream 2 just days ahead of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
×