Yes, we used Kremlin money for pipeline construction

By Hans-Jörg Vehlewald, Hans-Wilhelm Saure and Peter Tiede

Under the threat of foreclosure after a BILD lawsuit, the head of the foundation, Erwin Sellering (72, SPD), has now admitted:

► “Major purchases/investments” for the construction of the pipeline were “(pre)financed with the help of advance payments from Nord Stream 2”. Kremlin millions were thus smuggled through the foundation.

► The foundation also acquired the 5,600-ton dredger “Blue Ship” “with the help of advance payments from Nord Stream 2 AG”.

► Overall, the foundation’s “commercial operations” “concluded 80 contracts with service providers and suppliers”. How much money the Kremlin through Schwesigs “Climate” Foundation headed: SECRET!

But one thing is clear: nothing worked in the foundation without Putin’s Nord Stream group!

“It all smells like money laundering!”

The Berlin auditor Martin Kassebohm (58) to BILD: “The foundation was just a non-independent branch of Nord Stream AG.”

Foundation expert and ex-CDU politician Karl-Georg Wellmann (69): “Everything smells like money laundering!”

Greens expert Hannes Damm (30) states “that the fake climate foundation acted as a kind of car wash for Russian money”.

CDU state chief Franz-Robert Liskow (35) complained: Contrary to what Schwesig promised, the foundation was “nothing more than a branch of Nord Stream 2” and “in the end even acted as a builder”.

Stephan K. Ohme, financial expert from Transparency Germany, states: “The construction of the climate foundation served to disguise the actual beneficial owners, via Nord Stream 2 AG this was ultimately Gazprom. This presumably also violated money laundering regulations.” Transparency calls for “comprehensive further clarification”.

In the state parliament, the entire scandal surrounding the climate foundation will be scrutinized in a parliamentary committee of inquiry in the next few months.