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Pipeline situation: damage to Germany from the explosion of the Nord Streams exceeds 160 billion euros
The total losses of Germany from the explosion of the Nord Streams exceeded 160 billion euros, the Bundestag told Izvestia. The stoppage of cheap gas supplies from Russia has exacerbated budget problems and the situation with rising prices and unemployment, which is why Germans risk losing social benefits, experts say. At the same time, Berlin continues to conceal the details of the investigation into the gas pipeline explosion. Meanwhile, Russia is preparing an appeal to the International Court of Justice. Its content will depend on negotiations with Europe, which have not yet yielded results, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The consequences of the pipeline explosion for the German economy and the course of the investigation into this case are described in the Izvestia article.
Damage to the German economy after the sabotage on the Nord Streams
It has been almost three years since the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream–2 pipelines. The perpetrators have not yet been officially found: the German Prosecutor General's Office continues to declare that "the investigation is ongoing." Meanwhile, Germany is already calculating losses from the explosions of the Nord Streams, which currently exceed 160 billion euros.
— According to rough estimates, the volume of gas supplies via the Nord Stream (2021) in the amount of about 59 billion cubic meters led to additional annual import replacement costs of about €50 billion at 2022 prices. To this should be added the non—refundable investments in pipelines (totaling more than €15 billion), as well as the costs of damage and repairs after the explosions," Steffen Kotre, a deputy from the German Alternative for Germany party (AfD), a member of the Bundestag Committee on Economics and energy, told Izvestia. — However, the actual consequences are difficult to assess for sure, as they depend on market prices, consumption adjustments, and alternative sources.
The MP emphasizes that Nord Stream was the cheapest source of gas for Germany. At the same time, the current leadership of Germany will probably continue to obey the "dictates of the EU" and will not initiate the restoration of gas supplies from the Russian Federation, he is sure. Thus, the damage to the German economy will become greater every year.
The cessation of supplies of cheap blue fuel from Russia has already contributed to higher inflation and a deepening energy crisis in Germany. Thus, electricity prices in the country have increased by 31% since 2021, according to the analysis of the Verivox portal, which is cited by Handelsblatt. At the same time, heating costs increased by 61%, as most buildings in Germany are heated by more expensive gas. Along with rising food prices, this has hurt living standards in Germany. According to a YouGov study from 2023, even then about a third of Germans said they could not afford to save a single euro for retirement — the salary was spent on daily needs.
The trend towards deindustrialization of Germany and the crisis in key areas of the economy began precisely because of the suspension of energy exports from Russia, Alexander Kotov, head of the German economic sector at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, explained in a conversation with Izvestia. German companies, forced to increase energy costs, gradually began to lose the profitability of their industries, which sometimes led to bankruptcy.
— Today, businesses in Germany are constantly closing. The number of bankruptcies over an average of 10 years was the highest in June-July. Therefore, there is an objective crisis. And most importantly, this was recognized by the Chancellor himself, who said that the country was not facing an opportunistic crisis, but a structural one," the expert noted.
This was skillfully exploited in the United States, where the law on reducing inflation was passed in 2022. In particular, he implied significant tax benefits for companies that produce electric cars in the United States using American components.
After that, the German companies with the largest capitalization — BASF and Siemens Energy — announced that they would invest in the US economy, not Germany. German giants Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Bayer have also launched the process of moving production facilities to America.
The situation was also aggravated by the trade war of Donald Trump, who announced on March 26 that the United States would impose import duties of 25% on all cars manufactured outside the country. According to BMW CEO Oliver Zipse, the company has already established large-scale production in the United States and has established "good relations" with the leadership of the state of South Carolina, where their plant is located. Mercedes-Benz, which has a production facility in Alabama, intends to expand it. Thus, the process of transferring German production facilities overseas has begun, although so far it is a small stream that cannot be clearly recorded, Alexander Kotov draws attention.
The departure of the largest companies led to a sharp reduction in the number of jobs and exacerbated the problem of unemployment. According to the German Ministry of Labor, in August, excluding seasonal fluctuations, the number of unemployed reached a record 3.02 million people. This figure is 46 thousand more than in July. Such problems lead to the fact that many Germans lose confidence in the future, Maria Khorolskaya, Candidate of political Sciences and researcher at IMEMO RAS, said in a conversation with Izvestia.
— People are worried that they and their children will not live as well as they did five years ago. A significant role in this was played by the words of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that the authorities would no longer be able to finance the existing welfare system. Actually, the government is currently deciding how to launch the economy and where to find money for the budget," the expert explains.
In addition to the damage caused by the suspension of gas supplies from the Russian Federation, in recent years Germany has been experiencing a reduction in exports of its goods to the United States and China. In the first case, the reason was the increase in import duties by the Americans, and in the second, the growth of the Chinese economy, which is now able to produce many products in its own country. The reduction in exports has hit the budget hard, which is why the German parliament may soon cut social benefits.
How is the investigation of the sabotage on the Nord Streams progressing
The explosion of the gas pipelines (two branches of the Nord Stream and one of the Nord Stream – 2) occurred on September 26, 2022. The German Prosecutor General's Office launched an investigation into the incident on October 10. In the same year, Denmark and Sweden launched investigative actions, which subsequently completed them "due to lack of grounds" for initiating a criminal case.
As for the German investigation, Germany refuses to disclose any details of the case and to contact the Russian authorities.
— The German side continues to avoid constructive dialogue. Our numerous requests for legal assistance were ignored or the responses to them contained formal replies," the Russian Embassy in Germany said in June 2025.
The Russian Foreign Ministry considers the undermining of gas pipelines to be an act of international terrorism. It should be noted that on the eve of the three-year anniversary of the sabotage, the version of its commission by citizens of Ukraine is increasingly being discussed in the West. For example, Ukrainian Sergey Kuznetsov was arrested in Italy. Just a few days ago, an Italian court decided to extradite him to Germany. Earlier, another Ukrainian, Vladimir Zhuravlev, with the full connivance of the Polish authorities, managed to escape from under the noses of German investigators to Ukraine. At the same time, Berlin claims that they allegedly identified all the members of the sabotage group.
— The Kiev regime has tarnished itself by organizing a number of terrorist acts on the territory of the Russian Federation. There is nothing surprising in the fact that Ukrainians may be involved in the undermining of the Nord Streams. However, it is unlikely that they would have been able to pull off such an operation in Europe on their own," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a comment to Izvestia.
Earlier, The Wall Street Journal wrote that the operation to undermine Nord Streams in 2022 was supervised by the then commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny, and Vladimir Zelensky and the US authorities were informed about the plan.
Former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny
"In this regard, the version of American journalist Seymour Hersh about the bombing by the US Navy remains relevant," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Sergei Naryshkin, director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, had previously stated that there was information indicating the involvement of the US and British special services in the bombing of the Nord Streams. It is possible that Ukrainians in this situation are being used as a cover to divert attention from the true organizers and perpetrators, the department says.
In September last year, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that Moscow would appeal to the International Court of Justice in the case of the gas pipeline explosion if the issue was not resolved at the pre-trial settlement stage. Russia is actively preparing an appeal in this case, the Russian Foreign Ministry told Izvestia.
— The Russian Federation has already submitted relevant pre-trial claims to a number of European States and, as required by both conventions (on combating terrorist bombings and combating the financing of terrorism. — Izvestia), called on these countries to immediately hold negotiations on their interpretation and application. However, the Europeans are delaying the start of negotiations under far—fetched pretexts, leading them to a dead end, just as they were hindering the investigation of the terrorist attack itself," the ministry said. — We are closely following these events and taking them into account in our claims against states that sabotage the investigation of the terrorist attack, refuse to cooperate with the Russian investigative authorities and cover up the true perpetrators. A corresponding appeal to the International Court of Justice is being actively prepared. Its presentation and content will depend on the outcome of negotiations with European countries, which so far have not yielded results.
In the Bundestag, the Alternative for Germany party intends to continue demanding the publication of the interim results of the investigation, regularly sending requests to parliament for public pressure, Steffen Cotre said. Earlier, he noted that the party would seek to clarify the role of Ukraine and the United States in the Nord Stream bombings from the investigation and intended to raise the issue of compensation to Berlin.
The Nord Stream case is of an acute political nature, so the German authorities do not want information about the process to complicate their foreign policy course, Maria Khorolskaya believes. According to her, if you start talking about the Nord Stream case publicly, "too many questions" will appear.
— First of all, we will have to openly say that this is an attack on critical infrastructure and aggression against Germany. Secondly, the question of how to respond to this will be raised. Given that the situation in Germany is already difficult, if we raise the topic of Nord Streams now and everything that follows from it, it will add even more mess, the expert believes.
In addition, she added, a public discussion of the case would open up new opportunities for the opposition to criticize the ruling coalition, which could provoke a serious political crisis and lower ratings for Friedrich Merz's government.
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