The specialists handle counter-terrorism operations and have trained divers within their ranks, Der Spiegel reports

Germany’s Interior Ministry will permanently station a police tactical unit at the Baltic Sea port of Neustadt to ensure a rapid response to any potential attacks on “critical infrastructure,” Der Spiegel weekly reported on Friday.

The move was reportedly prompted by the September 2022 Nord Stream pipeline blasts, which showed there was a “clear” danger of “acts of sabotage,” the media outlet said, citing security sources.

GSG 9, the counterterrorism division of Germany’s Federal Police, features a maritime deployment unit, GSG 9/2, which has specially trained divers within its ranks and is equipped with speedboats, Der Spiegel said. They can also operate from the country’s Federal Police vessels.

According to other German media reports, the ministry stopped short of openly confirming Der Spiegel’s report on the unit’s redeployment by saying that it cannot provide “specific information” on the deployment locations of GSG 9 for “tactical reasons.”

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“In the view of the current threats… through acts of sabotage against critical infrastructure or terrorist [attacks], a rapid crisis response ability is important,” a ministerial spokesman told journalists.

A regional lawmaker in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, where Neustadt is located, told the media that the decision was made on Wednesday. “In Neustadt, the Federal Police has its own port… hosting four 86m-long emergency vessels,” which can be used by GSG 9 in case they’re needed, MP Bettina Hagedorn said.

The Nord Stream gas pipelines – the crucial energy infrastructure built to deliver Russian gas to Germany and the rest of Europe – were ruptured by underwater blasts in September 2022. Berlin launched a probe into the incident but has so far not made any results of the investigation public. Moscow has repeatedly stated that the German authorities have refused to share any information with Russia.

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Western media outlets have repeatedly reported that a privately funded group of Ukrainian divers was supposedly behind the attack. Some reports also stated that the group allegedly acted on orders from General Valery Zaluzhny, who was later dismissed and became Kiev’s ambassador to the UK.

Russia has repeatedly stated that the US could have had a hand in the incident. In September, the Russian foreign intelligence, the SVR, claimed that Washington and London had masterminded the 2022 sabotage in an act of economic warfare against their EU allies and are now forcing Berlin to hide the truth.

In February 2023, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh authored a report claiming that Washington had ordered the Nord Stream pipelines to be destroyed. The US denied its involvement at that time, branding the report “utterly false.” 

The German lawmaker Sahra Wagenknecht also questioned the government’s silence on the issue and has called for the establishment of an independent parliamentary investigative committee to look into it.