As reported, the government of the Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has created a foundation with the aim to ensure the completion of the contentious gas pipeline.
This draws heavy political criticism along the line of arguments that the purportedly environmental foundation has nothing to do with the preservation of nature but is only a front organsation almost entirely financed by russian money.
Source BILD:
The warm rain from Saint Petersburg is followed by the cold shower of criticism from Germany.
The Schwerin state parliament passed a resolution on Thursday - without dissenting votes! - the establishment of a "Foundation for Climate and Environmental Protection MV". But the flowery-sounding name Foundation is supposed to wrap in cotton wool which goal the foundation is primarily pursuing: avoiding sanctions for companies involved in the construction of the Russian pipeline Nord Stream 2!
Politicians, environmental associations and representatives of civil society are shocked at the bold trick the state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, led by Manuela Schwesig (SPD), is using to push ahead with its gas deal.
INCREDIBLE: The “non-profit” and “state owned” foundation is 99 percent financed by the Russian state gas giant Gazprom. Schwesig's “Umweltstiftung” donated 20 million euros through its sole subsidiary, “Nord Stream 2 AG”. There is only 200,000 euros in foundation capital from the state budget.
According to its own statements, the state government plans "to set up a commercial business in the foundation with the aim of contributing to the progress of work on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline".
In plain language: All business of the pipeline partners should run through the state foundation, because it cannot fall under US sanctions - although the money for it comes from Russia.
Shock waves in Berlin: “With 20 million euros in start-up capital from Gazprom, the SPD-led state government de facto let itself be bought. Manuela Schwesig is following in the footsteps of former Chancellor and Putin friend Gerhard Schröder, ”said FDP foreign policy expert Renata Alt to BILD.
According to Alt, the decision of the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to set up a foundation for “climate and environmental protection” is “hard to beat in terms of hypocrisy and hypocrisy”. In addition to Russian assets, German taxpayers' money would be used here "to circumvent the US sanctions against Nord Stream 2".
The Greens MP Claudia Müller, herself from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, considers the newly established foundation to be “a cover organization for the Russian state company Gazprom to enforce its interests”.
Regarding the advanced environmental protection aspect, Müller said to BILD: “It is hardly bold.” Nord Stream 2 represents “a rejection of the Paris climate protection agreement and has absolutely nothing to do with climate protection”.
Ralf Fuecks, director of the think tank “Center for Liberal Modernism”, calls Schwesig's new foundation “a sham package that says environmental protection and contains natural gas from the Russian Arctic that is harmful to the climate”. The fact that a state foundation is “99 percent financed with Russian money is a degradation of morals”, according to the former head of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, which is close to the Greens.
In general, "in view of the EU's new climate targets and the Kremlin's constant attacks on democracy and human rights", it is high time to put Nord Stream 2 "on hold".
On Thursday evening, Manuela Schwesig posted a video on Twitter in which she defended the foundation of the foundation. The foundation is important to “advance environmental and climate protection projects”. Der #LandtagMV hat heute mit großer Mehrheit von @SPDLandtagMV @cdufraktionmv und @LinksfraktionMV die Errichtung einer Stiftung für Klima- und Umweltschutz beschlossen. Mehr zur Stiftung erkläre ich im Video 👇 pic.twitter.com/9ChYYNV74H
The institution is about "supporting the broad participation of citizens in climate change".
Schwesig, on the other hand, did not say who finances the foundation and that it is intended to implement a Russian state project. Instead, the SPD politician declares: "Yes, we are giving the foundation the opportunity to help the Baltic Sea pipeline." Its real name - Nord Stream 2 - does not appear.
Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Managing Director of Deutsche Umwelthilfe, thinks that is scandalous. He said to BILD: "I find Prime Minister Schwesig's propaganda video particularly shabby, in which she exploits the climate policy concerns of the people in her country to cover up Russian gas deals."
Müller-Kraenner angry: “The same Russian state that persecutes climate activists in its own country is now funding a non-profit foundation in Germany that is directed against climate protection. And that with the support of the CDU, SPD and Left Party as well as the Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. "
The "Foundation for Climate and Environmental Protection MV" is "obviously not about climate protection, but about using a charitable foundation to advance the construction of the rightly controversial Nordstream2 Pipeline".
Others also sharply criticized the Schwesig video.
► The deputy federal chairman of the Greens, Ricarda Lang, criticized: The way Manuela Schwesig is instrumentalizing people's justified concerns about the climate crisis to push through a climate-damaging pipeline for Gazprom is lying and cynical. " .
► Matthias Fuchs, office manager of the CDU foreign politician Nikolas Löbel, is also clear. His conclusion on Schwesig's video defense of the Mogelstiftung: “I don't understand how you can lie and throw sand in your eyes in two minutes, even though you know better. Shameful."
► Mathieu von Rohr, the head of foreign affairs for the magazine “Der Spiegel”, also criticized the Schwesig video unusually harshly. He writes: “The Russian government has a good ally in MV. Not a word about the fact that many EU countries are against Nord Stream 2 - because the Baltic Sea pipeline is a geopolitical project of Putin. To sell the whole thing in connection with an eco-project is incredible. "
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