Germans' Support For Kiev May Wane Amid 'Contrived' Nord Stream Reports - Ex-US Official

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th March, 2023) Chancellor Olaf Scholz may fail to maintain public support in Germany for arming Kiev amid hardly credible reports blaming Ukraine for the Nord Stream attack, former Pentagon analyst Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.

In early February, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh reported that US navy divers planted explosives on the Nord Stream pipelines. Just a few days after Scholz held talks with President Joe Biden at the White House on March 3, US and German media reports surfaced placing the blame for the attack on a pro-Ukraine group.

In an interview aired earlier on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the version of the involvement of Ukrainian activists in the explosion at Nord Stream "complete nonsense." Putin told the Rossiya 1 broadcaster that the explosion was carried out by specialists supported by all the might of a state with certain technologies.

Kwiatkowski suggested Germans opposed to continued war aid could use the stories to blame Ukraine for Germany's economic challenges, or they could use the "contrived" story as another example of US and NATO lies.

"Overall, the 'story' is an insult to the intelligence of the average German, and as such it will both weaken German support for (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy, and increasingly show German voters that Scholz himself is a tool of Washington, DC, putting US desires for war on the continent above the needs and the sovereignty of actual Germans," Kwiatkowski said. "That support has been declining due to cost, economic turmoil in Germany, and the pressure and stress of hosting and supporting over a million Ukrainians, most of whom intend to stay there."

The amateur statesmen and spymasters in Washington, Kwiatkowski added, barely conceived of this story in time for Scholz's visit, she said.

"And it appears they may have needed the German Chancellor's advice and consent, before providing the unsubstantiated and vague storyline to friendly media," the former Pentagon analyst said.

If the report itself were more believable, Kwiatkowski explained, or was accompanied by arrests, actual evidence and data, it perhaps would not be as damaging.

Kwiatkowski said it is unlikely that German intelligence has not known the basic facts of the pipeline attacks for many months, but until Hersh's reporting Scholz and his party could simply remain silent, "as they did."

The pipeline sabotage was an act of war by the United States, Kwiatkowski argued, as documented by Hersh, but it remains to be seen whether this was an act of war against Russia, against Germany, "or horrifyingly, both."

"It is most certainly a ploy to shift the focus, because if an act of war were to be committed by the dominant NATO member against the next strongest NATO member, the entire NATO construct would collapse," she added. "This possibility must not only be denied, it must be suppressed and eliminated."

Former CIA station chief and analyst Phil Giraldi told Sputnik the new reports do not seem credible versus what Hersh revealed from sources involved in the actual destruction of Nord Stream. He also said the timing of the new narrative is suspicious coming after the "nothing-happened" meeting between Biden and Scholz.

Eurasia Group Vice President Earl Rasmussen said the stories emerging in the wake of Scholz's visit to Washington are obviously no coincidence and the entire embarrassing affair will diminish Germany's respect world-wide.