German intelligence played a critical role in averting a potential collapse of the nation’s energy supply during the winter months preceding and following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Former Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) acknowledged the agency’s significance in a statement to “Welt am Sonntag” highlighting the “detailed and accurate assessments” of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) as a “key basis for our decisions, which allowed the federal government to avoid a gas emergency.
According to the newspaper, BND experts provided close counsel to the German government as Russia significantly reduced and ultimately halted natural gas deliveries. Sources within the government have revealed that the agency proactively presented concrete proposals, including the rapid chartering of a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal from Norway. These assessments, the report claims, were instrumental in mitigating the situation and without them, Germany would have faced a considerably more severe gas crisis.
The BND itself declined to comment on the matter, citing its obligation to maintain secrecy.
