The specialists deal with counter-terrorism operations and have educated divers inside their ranks, Der Spiegel stories
Germany’s Inside Ministry will completely station a police tactical unit on the Baltic Sea port of Neustadt to make sure a speedy response to any potential assaults on “important infrastructure,” Der Spiegel weekly reported on Friday.
The transfer was reportedly prompted by the September 2022 Nord Stream pipeline blasts, which confirmed there was a “clear” hazard of “acts of sabotage,” the media outlet stated, citing safety sources.
GSG 9, the counterterrorism division of Germany’s Federal Police, includes a maritime deployment unit, GSG 9/2, which has specifically educated divers inside its ranks and is provided with speedboats, Der Spiegel stated. They will additionally function from the nation’s Federal Police vessels.
In keeping with different German media stories, the ministry stopped in need of overtly confirming Der Spiegel’s report on the unit’s redeployment by saying that it can not present “particular data” on the deployment places of GSG 9 for “tactical causes.”
“Within the view of the present threats… via acts of sabotage in opposition to important infrastructure or terrorist [attacks], a speedy disaster response potential is vital,” a ministerial spokesman informed journalists.
A regional lawmaker within the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, the place Neustadt is positioned, informed the media that the choice was made on Wednesday. “In Neustadt, the Federal Police has its personal port… internet hosting 4 86m-long emergency vessels,” which can be utilized by GSG 9 in case they’re wanted, MP Bettina Hagedorn stated.
The Nord Stream fuel pipelines – the essential power infrastructure constructed to ship Russian fuel to Germany and the remainder of Europe – had been ruptured by underwater blasts in September 2022. Berlin launched a probe into the incident however has to date not made any outcomes of the investigation public. Moscow has repeatedly acknowledged that the German authorities have refused to share any data with Russia.
Western media retailers have repeatedly reported {that a} privately funded group of Ukrainian divers was supposedly behind the assault. Some stories additionally acknowledged that the group allegedly acted on orders from Normal Valery Zaluzhny, who was later dismissed and have become Kiev’s ambassador to the UK.
Russia has repeatedly acknowledged that the US might have had a hand within the incident. In September, the Russian international intelligence, the SVR, claimed that Washington and London had masterminded the 2022 sabotage in an act of financial warfare in opposition to their EU allies and at the moment are forcing Berlin to cover the reality.
In February 2023, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh authored a report claiming that Washington had ordered the Nord Stream pipelines to be destroyed. The US denied its involvement at the moment, branding the report “completely false.”
The German lawmaker Sahra Wagenknecht additionally questioned the federal government’s silence on the difficulty and has referred to as for the institution of an impartial parliamentary investigative committee to look into it.
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