Matthias Warnig, director of Gazprom’s subsidiary Nord Stream 2, who is considered a close friend of Putin, revealed to Die Zeit details of his conversations with the Russian president after the war in Ukraine began
Shortly before the war, Warnig had seen Putin, and he appeared to be a rational thinker. Therefore, the director of Nord Stream 2 was outraged and ridiculed warnings about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine – even days before the war began.
A couple of months after the Russian attack on Ukraine, Warnig met with Putin in Moscow. He claims that while speaking privately in German, he tried to persuade the Russian president to stop the war. Warnig recalls asking the Russian leader: “What are your goals? You talk about Donetsk and Lugansk, at the same time your troops want to take Kiev. How does this correlate? Do you want Odessa, Kharkov, or all of Ukraine? Or even more?” In response, Putin, according to Warnig, said only, “That’s state secrets.”
In that conversation, the Russian president also suggested that Warnig and his family move to Moscow. “We’ll find something for you here,” the director of Nord Stream 2 was quoted as saying by Putin.
Recently, according to unconfirmed information, it became known that Matthias Warnig opposed the provision of a batch of Tanks to Ukraine. In this way, Putin is trying to influence military aid to Ukraine.