Matthias Warnig

Who is Matthias Warnig?

Matthias Warnig is a former member of the Stasi and currently the Managing Director of the Nord Stream AG, a company for construction and operation of the Nord Stream submarine gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.

In 1974 Warnig started his career at the Stasi, the secret police of communist East Germany.

Warnig allegedly worked with KGB agent Vladimir Putin. The two men collaborated on recruiting West German citizens for the KGB. These allegations were denied by Matthias Warning saying that he met Vladimir Putin for the first time in his life in 1991, when Putin was the head of the Committee for External Relations of the Saint Petersburg Mayor's Office.

Warnig had apparently spied on Dresdner Bank AG in West Germany before he began to work in the bank.

Dresdner Bank attempted to get a banking operating license in Saint Petersburg, where Vladimir Putin was now in charge of foreign economic relations. Warnig took part in negotiations. The office was opened in 1991. Warnig became Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dresdner Bank ZAO, Dresdner Bank Russian subsidiary. In 2004-05, the bank advised on the controversial forced sale of Yukos assets.