Germany investigates if NATO secrets were leaked to Russia during the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline…

German Stralsund officials mistakenly declassified data on NATO submarines when publishing documents on the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in 2018, a German publication reported.

Sensitive defense information could have been leaked to Russia during the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, with Germany’s prosecutor general now on the case, Bild has reported. The alleged disclosure presumably happened in 2018, with classified data apparently made available to anyone on the website of a regional mining authority.

Built to deliver Russian natural gas directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea, the pipelines were rendered inoperable by a series of powerful underwater explosions in international waters near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022. While Germany, Sweden, and Denmark had each launched separate investigations, none has apportioned blame for the attack. Earlier this month, the Swedish authorities announced they were dropping the probe.

In an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson earlier in February, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed the finger at the US.

In its article on Sunday, Bild reported that on December 11, 2023, Germany’s prosecutor general informed the Defense Ministry that it had launched a “probe in connection with a possible publication of military information on operational areas of NATO's submarines by the mining authority of [the city of] Stralsund.” It is suspected that local officials divulged state secrets during the planning process for the Nord Stream 2 construction, the media outlet reported.

The publication said Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’ office had confirmed that “Stralsund’s mining authority published shot numbers of the German Navy categorized as ‘classified – for internal use only’ in the planning approval resolution for the Nord Stream 2 dated January 31, 2018 on page 556.”

According to Bild, this information could be used to draw conclusions regarding the fleet’s operational capacities. The outlet went on to claim that this proves that the Russian government was seeking to find out about submarines’ dive sites in the Baltic Sea, as well as Germany’s military drones.

The article also suggested that this information could have been used by the saboteurs who blew up the gas pipelines in September 2022.

An explosion occurred on September 26, 2022 in two pipelines (Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2) that export gas to Europe. Germany, Denmark and Sweden did not rule out the possibility of targeted sabotage. Nord Stream operator Nord Stream AG reported that the damage to gas pipelines was unprecedented and the time frame for repairs was impossible to predict. The Russian Prosecutor’s Office initiated a lawsuit regarding the international terrorist act.