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German authorities on Wednesday carried out raids in Berlin and Frankfurt as part of an investigation into a suspected attempt to sabotage Germany’s gas supply.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office said police searched the premises of a Russian suspect and another person not under investigation in the German capital, as well as those of an unnamed business in Frankfurt am Main.
The investigation is looking into the sale of Gazprom’s Berlin-based subsidiary Gazprom Germania, which took place around a month after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
According to federal prosecutors, the entity was divested from the Russian Gazprom Group through “indirect share sales” at the end of March 2022, before a “Moscow-based company with no ties to the industry emerged as the new owner”.
The new owner then ordered the liquidation of Gazprom Germania, which held at least 25% of Germany’s natural gas storage capacity at the time, per prosecutors.
“The accused – a Russian national – is charged with having supported the implementation of the liquidation resolution with this aim in mind,” they said in a statement, adding that no arrests have been made.
Russia was a major supplier of natural gas to Germany prior to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Berlin has since been forced to rapidly reduce its reliance on Russian imports.
Former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in late 2022 that Germany would not become dependent on a strategic resource like gas again.
“We have seen with Russia what it means to rely on a strategically crucial resource,” he said at an economic forum organised by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. “My understanding from conversations with German business leaders is that we will not make that mistake a second time”.
The European Union has agreed to phase out imports of Russian gas by late 2027, as it seeks to diversify its energy market.
“We are breaking away from detrimental reliance on Russian gas and taking a major step, in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation, towards an autonomous Energy Union,” Michael Damianos, Cyprus’ minister for energy, commerce and industry said in January.