Berlin and Hanover are not the only places where the spider web unraveled by Putin's willing helpers in Germany was intertwined with parts of the SPD government personnel.

What was suspected months before the Russian war of aggression was now becoming apparent.

Documents from the Mecklenburg-Western Pomeranian state government that have become known suggest that Nord Stream 2 AG, which is controlled by former SPD chancellor and close friend of Putin, Gerhard Schröder, and financed by Gazprom as the majority owner, was able to influence government decisions in Schwerin.

Schröder and his team played a crucial role in the background to the tricky founding of the apparently independent climate and environmental protection foundation by the state government and state parliament to operate the gas pipeline.

Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig is heavily burdened, who until recently did not fight for Nord Stream 2 in a cool North German way.

Still celebrated as a power woman after a triumphant election victory in the SPD in autumn, Schwesig now has to live with the reputation of having been a puppet of Putin.

Her defense strategy, that she never spoke to the ruler in the Kremlin, seems innocent given the many pro-Russian statements made before the attack on Ukraine and confidential meetings with Putin cronies like Schröder.

Even the admission that, like so many other German politicians, he was wrong about Putin and afterwards castigated the construction of the billion-euro tunnel through the Baltic Sea as a mistake is not enough as a liberating blow.

It is not surprising that CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen sees her resignation as inevitable if the allegations are correct.

What makes one sit up and take notice, however, is that leading Greens, as traffic light partners in Berlin, are demanding relentless clarification and a parliamentary committee of inquiry.

Then it could be tight for Schwesig.