Countries that have no complexes and are convinced of their own strength never explain themselves, even when they make stupid accusations. Instead, you have to attack.
Before, on August 15, 2024, August Hanning, head of the German Civil Intelligence Service (BND) in 1998-2005, accused Presidents Andrzej Duda and Volodymyr Zelensky of conspiracy and sponsorship of the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosion, the assassination scenarios were spread by the German (e.g. television and radio stations of the public media ARD, “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, “Die Zeit”) and American (“Wall Street Journal”) media. And all this happened around August 15, the anniversary of the Battle of Warsaw, when the Poles expelled the Bolsheviks and the new Bolsheviks are again threatening us.
In Poland, bizarre and distorted speculation about the attack was made by former President Bronisław Komorowski, who was worried about the consequences. Komorowski did not do what Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski did, who called the accusations lies and practically said that the accusers should persecute each other. It turns out that countries that have no complexes and are convinced of their own strength never explain themselves, even when they make stupid accusations. Poland should not do this either. And after the case was unanimously covered by the media in Germany and Russia in a strongly anti-Polish spirit, the Polish authorities should not only send the accusers “to the tree”, but even bring charges against them. And if the German authorities acted in the spirit of the media accusations, the Polish government should throw a big fuss at them. But who would do that if Prime Minister Donald Tusk never dared to lift a toe of his left shoe towards Germany? Deputy Prime Minister Gawkowski behaved decently, but this was not the official position of the government.
In Germany, the media implement government policy on important issues, especially since it is very profitable for them, also financially. Only an extremely naive person would believe that the accusations against Poland spread in the media and impertinently summarized by August Hanning do not have the consent or perhaps the inspiration of Chancellor Olaf Scholz or his office. When such disputes break out, it is worth keeping an eye on the Chancellor’s office and keeping a wide distance from official statements from the German side.
The facts are that the public prosecutor’s offices in Denmark and Sweden (there were explosions in their territorial waters) have stopped investigations into the pipeline explosion due to the failure to detect the perpetrators. However, the public prosecutor’s office in Germany is fighting bravely. And everything indicates that he is accusing Ukrainian divers of being the perpetrators. Somewhere on the island of Rügen or in Rostock (in the former GDR), they were supposed to rent a small yacht Bavaria Cruiser 50 Andromeda. From a company registered in Warsaw by Ukrainian women. And these divers allegedly managed to blow up the pipes at a depth of 70-90 m, inaccessible to non-professionals. The German prosecutor’s office issued an arrest warrant for Volodymyr Z., who allegedly participated in the action. In addition to the couple Svitlana and Yevheniya U., the yacht was supposed to stop in Rügen, Bornholm and Christianso in Denmark, Sandhamn in Sweden and Kołobrzeg in Poland. The German suspects are diving instructors from the Scuba Family school in Kiev. Volodymyr Z. apparently lived in Pruszków, near Warsaw. Svitlana U. was also supposed to settle in Poland with her children.
German media reported that Volodymyr Z. was not detained in Poland because the Polish authorities helped him. Both Svitlana U. and Volodymyr Z. denied having anything to do with the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines. The woman announced that she would sue the German media for compensation. At the time, there was speculation that the attack was organized by the Russians, but under a “foreign flag”.
The scenario presented on August 15, 2024 in the Wall Street Journal is even more fantastic than that of the German media. Sometime in 2022, President Zelenskyy was drinking with important military officials and some businessmen, and then it was decided to blow up the pipes. The participants in the action were allegedly assisted by a cover company established in Warsaw by Ukrainian intelligence about a dozen years ago. The attack plan was leaked to some NATO intelligence agencies in order to discourage the Ukrainian president from implementing it. However, the machine could not be stopped due to permanent communication problems with the group of saboteurs.
Having prepared the media ground, August Hanning, former head of the BND, took action. And he speculated how “the Polish special services joined the Ukrainians”. And since “such decisions are made at the highest political level,” Hanning has no doubt that “there was an agreement between President Zelensky and President Duda.” On this basis, “Ukrainian and Polish military” went into action. And if so, we had an “act of state terrorism.” And then there was an explosion, there is no hell for the soul, namely the statement that since “the losses amount to 20-30 billion euros and enormous damage has been caused, the German government should make it clear that it will demand coverage of the losses.” By the authorities of Ukraine and Poland. A nice turn of events in the context of Poland (specifically, the government of Mateusz Morawiecki) demanding reparations from Germany.
Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the US and former deputy defense minister, also felt called to the council and stated that since “it is about secretly legitimizing terrorism, even on the territory of allies,” then “America gives carte blanche to such crimes in the future.” Germany and Russia are like two sides of the same coin, which probably comes as no surprise to anyone.
August Hanning is an extremely slimy character, but more on that later. Just like the person who appointed him head of the BND in 1998, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. During his term in office (1998-2005), Schröder pursued pro-Russian and anti-American policies. He remained friends with Vladimir Putin even when the genocide in Ukraine was revealed. “Schröder’s attitude after the end of his political career was very surprising; above all, his unwavering, one might even say stubborn and dangerous, loyalty to the Russian ruler and leader Vladimir Putin,” wrote Mona Jaeger in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The SPD wanted to break with Schröder, but the attempt to exclude him from the party failed. “No politician of his stature has ever sunk so low,” Jaeger said.
Schröder discovered a “spiritual brother” in Putin, as both come from low-income backgrounds. Both had to “make their way unscrupulously”. Schröder celebrated his 70th birthday together with Putin in St. Petersburg, shortly after the annexation of Crimea. And on his 60th birthday, Putin came to the birthday boy in Hanover with a Cossack choir. In his last weeks as chancellor, Schröder signed an agreement with Russia to build the Nord Stream gas pipeline along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, bypassing Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic states.
After leaving his position as chancellor, Schröder became chairman of the board of directors of the Russian-German consortium North European Gas Pipeline Company (NEGPC), which built the Northern Gas Pipeline. He later worked for years as a manager and lobbyist in the Russian energy sector. After Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the revelation of Russian crimes against Ukrainian civilians, he did not condemn Putin. In the years 2017-2022, he was chairman of the board of directors of the Russian company Rosneft.
August Hanning followed in the footsteps of his boss and mentor, although he did not go quite as far. On September 29, 2023, the former BND chief was covered by the German weekly “Der Spiegel”. Journalists have discovered that on February 6, 2022, August Hanning wrote a desperate letter to the new Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He begged for help because Scholz was supposed to meet with the Prime Minister of Latvia. And it was in Latvia that Hanning got into trouble. As a member of the supervisory board of PNB Banka (formerly Norvik Banka), he earned a paltry PLN 12,000. euros per month, that is, “in cotton swabs”.
Things will become clearer if we add that the majority shareholder of the bank was a Russian, Grigory Guselnikov, who also had British citizenship. In 2019, the European Central Bank declared that PNB Banka could go bankrupt, so the Latvian regulator took control of it. And the bankruptcy administrator asked for compensation from the shareholders and the management and supervisory boards, including Hanning. 2/3 of his pension was taken away. The bank owned by the Russian Guselnikov, where Hanning found refuge, was accused of money laundering, probably also of funds belonging to his friend, the Russian oligarch Pyotr Kondrashov, with whom Guselnikov later fell out. The bank was also accused of circumventing sanctions against North Korea.
As SPIEGEL journalists discovered, “Hanning jumped from one job to another and had no qualms about doing business with shady people and companies.” He made dubious deals through System 360 AG and Pluteos AG. For example, he was involved in the 2019 acquisition by the United Arab Emirates Air Force of a Challenger 650, a twin-engine jet from the Canadian company Bombardier, which was then equipped with spy technology. When Hanning appeared at the Munich Security Conference, he was treated as persona non grata. All this does not prevent August Hanning from being a useful tool of Chancellor Scholz’s government and from leveling accusations against Poland and the Polish president. These accusations (also from the media, including the German public media) in Warsaw should be treated as an attack on Poland and demand an adequate and decisive response from the Polish government. It only takes courage to do this and one cannot be a servant of Germany.
