I don’t really feel that any of the parties involved here are doing a fantastic job of handling this from a PR standpoint, based on what’s in the article.

Tusk appeared to be reacting specifically to a claim by a former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, BND, August Hanning, who told the German daily Die Welt that the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines must have had Poland’s support. Hanning said Germany should consider seeking compensation from Poland and Ukraine.

Okay, this guy Hanning has apparently not been in office for 19 years. He probably has fuck-all by way of current inside information about what is going on. And he’s inserting himself into a politically-sensitive debate. Frankly, back when he held a relevant position, I’m pretty sure that he wouldn’t want people from twenty years earlier hopping into his handling of the situation. I’d bet that the present German government would rather not have retirees trying to back-seat drive this.

While I don’t know if Tusk is saying that Hanning personally was involved with North Stream, the time when he was in office was about right for Nord Steam 1. Given that even independently of the pipeline detonations, the pipeline’s flow was cut and had turned into a fiasco, I think that I probably would keep kind of quiet on the topic if I’d been involved.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Saturday reacted to reports that revived questions about who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022, saying the initiators of the gas pipeline project should “apologize and keep quiet.”

So, is this going to improve the situation? Probably not, probably just going to get tempers hotter. It’s a pretty good bet that hearing that is not going to make Hanning apologize or knock it off. Probably he’s just going to get more-pugnacious. And he’s not even working for the German government, so that government can’t tell him to stop. Raising it does give it more visibility. I’d ignore it, and if specifically asked about it, make some comment highlighting that the statement was not from someone in the current German government and those are the relevant parties in the matter and who Poland is working with.

Like, this could have been no more than some retired civil servant saying something obnoxious – as far as I know, the present German government hadn’t said anything – and Tusk wading in elevates it to something that actually-relevant officials are talking about.

Obviously, it’s a sensitive issue. National security, money, international relations, etc are all tied up in this. There’s a foreign service to handle this kind of stuff, calm the situation down. Angry hot takes aren’t gonna help. Even if Hanning is dead wrong, I doubt that this is the best way to bring that up from Poland’s standpoint.

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