Tell me about it. This has Schroeder and Fischer written all over it.
Schoroder has a “mouth-piece” contract...to simply talk for the company...supposedly in the $3-$4 million a year range. To be honest...the guy didn’t ever clean up big as a politician or a lawyer...so he is trying to make an ample income now after leaving politics. No one much in German politics listens to the guy now...and in the German business community he is a virtual zero. Its difficult to see how the Russians can find reasoning to pay an idiot money for getting nothing accomplished (except when he was chancellor).
As for this pipeline episode...I’m betting on unscheduled maintenance and the Russians don’t want to admit that it was a major breakage somewhere. Unlike the idiots in South America who advertise far and wide on every breakage...the Russians tend to keep their mouth shut and just fix the problem.