Putin orders oath of allegiance by Wagnerites

German magazine Der Spiegel has published a lengthy and detailed investigation into the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline.

It cites German investigators – who are undertaking what one senior security official described as “the most important investigation of Germany’s postwar history because of its potential political implications” – and reported that “a striking number of clues point to Ukraine”.

The pipelines were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany and Der Spiegel reported that the operation intended to inflict “lasting damage to the functionality of the state and its facilities. In this sense, this is an attack on the internal security of the state.”

A member of parliament from a party that is a member of the German government coalition told the magazine: “Everyone is shying away from the question of consequences.”

Nancy Faeser, Germany’s interior minister, said: “I hope that the [German] federal prosecutor will find enough clues to indict the perpetrators.”

Der Spiegel said that while Germany “couldn’t simply brush off such a serious crime … suspending support for Ukraine in its war against Russia also wouldn’t be an option.” If the US provided assistance to the attack, that would add further complexity to the issue facing German policymakers, it added.

According to Der Spiegel’s sources, investigators are certain that the saboteurs were in Ukraine before and after the attack. Indeed, the overall picture formed by the puzzles pieces of technical information has grown quite clear.

And the possible motives also seem clear to international security circles: The aim, they says, was to deprive Moscow of an important source of revenue for financing the war against Ukraine. And at the same time to deprive Putin once and for all of his most important instrument of blackmail against the German government.