BERLIN – It is another chapter in the inexhaustible thread of espionage and conspiracies that has run along the Berlin-Moscow axis for almost a century. But it is a dramatic story that could seriously call into question Western support for Ukraine. In the spring of 2022, a few weeks after the Russian invasion, the Kremlin hatched a conspiracy around an obscure Moscow DJ that could have shocked Europe.
The protagonist of this spy story is in the clubs and raves where he cheers up the Russians with his house music Dmitri Zeplaevis known as “DJ Five” or “Dmitry Five”. In his free time, the small boss of the Moscow subway supplements his income by selling cars. But in April 2022, the DJ suddenly finds himself at the helm of a double-digit billion dollar company that employs 1,500 people: Gazprom Germany.
It is the company that buys about half of the Russian gas needed to heat German homes and runs the country’s energy-intensive factories. A strategic company for Europe’s leading economy. And that has been firmly in Russian hands for years. The aim of the shadow operation organized directly by the Kremlin around the DJ “Dmitry Five” is liquidation Gazprom Germany and throttle gas deliveries to Europe’s largest economy, demands the Chancellor Olaf Scholz to cut aid to Ukraine and divide the old continent.
The dramatic events at the end of March and beginning of April 2022 were reconstructed by the financial newspaper Handelsblatt and give you goosebumps. Since February 24, since the beginning of Russian aggression, those responsible for Gazprom Germany, the company that buys gas from Siberian fields and distributes it to around 500 German companies and municipalities, have been in constant tension. Putin’s war carries the risk that supplies will be called into question: blue gold has been arriving at the deposits in batches for months.
And then comes day X. On March 30th, the top managers of Gazprom Germany are called into luxury Ritz Carlton in Berlin by five obscure Russian businessmen who claim to appear on behalf of the company’s new owner: DJ Dmitry, the King of House, who likes to wear red hats, with the words “Switzerland“.
Managers almost fall off their chairs. And they understand: No, even if we’re close to it, it’s not an April Fool’s joke. The Russians have handed control of Gazprom Germany to a shady DJ because they want to hide the true owners behind complicated financial entanglements. And DJ Dmitry is officially tasked with liquidating the company in order to plunge Germany into cold and darkness. The Russians are striving for chaos, they hope to force millions of Germans onto the streets in order to corner the Scholz government.
However, two managers from Gazprom Germany are not in favor of it. They alerted the federal government, which received them the following day at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, where they were greeted by officials and representatives of the executive branch. Berlin hears from the brave Whiteblower Russians who have 50 hours to avert catastrophe. Further events are hectic, a small working group ponders day and night about possible solutions and continuously exchanges ideas with Scholz’s advisors and the Chancellor himself. Above all, the hypothesis of forced nationalization is taken into account. And the two Russian managers are guaranteed an escort and absolute state protection as well as a German passport after the dozens of “mysterious” deaths at the top of Russian companies controlled by the Kremlin – including Gazprom.
Of course, Moscow made a serious mistake: it did not inform the DJ about the change in ownership of Gazprom Germania Ministry of Economic Affairs German. And the government can also veto strategic companies like Gazprom Germany. But in April 2022reports the Handelsblatt, although gas continues to arrive from Russian fields Nord Stream And Germany is still extremely dependent on these deliveries. The Scholz government fears that Putin will respond to a possible forced nationalization of Gazprom Germany by turning off the taps. And there are even those in the ministry who still favor a more diplomatic solution that would allow them to return to the negotiating table Wladimir Putin.
In the end, the compulsory enforcement fortunately passes and the government decides to first set up a trust, incorporate Gazprom Germany into it and hand it over to the network agency in order to avoid compensation cases that would have arisen in the event of direct expropriation. Kremlin spokesman Peskov thunders against alleged “bandits” in Germany who are said to have seized Russian assets, and on April 5, Putin condemns the “brutal crackdown” against Russian companies “in some European countries.” The rest is history: By wresting control from Gazprom Germany, Scholz gained time. In any case, Putin’s revenge, the closure of the gas pipelines to Europe, came a few months later. Anything but the negotiating table with Putin.