Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and reunification the following year transformed Germany’s relations with Russia, bringing “a feeling of trust and gratitude,” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.

“It’s one of the foundation stones in our relations,” Putin said in an interview today with Russia’s NTV television channel, according to the transcript posted on the government Web site. “There is an understanding that we need each other.”

Germany is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s opening on Nov. 9, an event that brought an end to communist rule in East Germany and prepared the way for reunification less than a year later, on Oct. 3, 1990.

Putin cited the Nord Stream AG venture to build a natural- gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany as an example of bilateral co-operation, saying that he hoped to convince European countries to approve the project.

Nord Stream, a joint Russian-German venture 51 percent owned by Russian state-owned gas monopoly OAO Gazprom and chaired by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, won Swedish permission on Nov. 5, and Denmark’s on Oct. 20. Germany takes 37 percent of its natural gas from Russia, the biggest foreign customer of Russian gas.

KGB Agent

Putin served as a KGB agent in Dresden, East Germany, between 1985 and 1990 and was responsible for collecting information on political parties, leaders and future policies, as well as recruiting agents. A lawyer by training, he was handpicked by late President Boris Yeltsin as his successor on Dec. 31, 1999, and served as president until 2008.

Recounting his first impressions of East Germany in 1985, Putin said he was struck by the difference with the Soviet Union, where perestroika had started and changes were brewing.

“People lived as if nothing was happening,” said Putin, who speaks fluent German. “I had the impression that I’d come to a country that was some relic of the Soviet system of past years, even earlier than the 1970s.”

In 1989, when public protests accelerated in East Germany and rioters stormed the offices of the Ministry for State Security in Dresden, Putin said he was among those who tried to prevent them from attacking Soviet Army facilities.

“There was no conflict,” Putin said. “We explained to them that the building belongs to the Soviet Army and we have the right to be there.”

Protecting Interests

During German reunification, Russia “might have done something differently to protect our interests,” he said, without elaborating.

In a book published in 2000, Putin said that he “felt sorry” the Soviet Union lost its position in Europe.

“I realized that the position based on walls and dividing lines can’t exist forever,” Putin said in the book, ‘From the First Person: Conversations with Vladimir Putin.’ “But I wished something else would replace it. And nothing else was offered. And that’s what hurts. We just left everything and walked out.”

President Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s successor, said in an interview released yesterday with German news magazine Der Spiegel that after the fall of the wall he’d hoped for “a somewhat different place for Russia in Europe,” including better integration and guaranteed security.

Putin told NTV that he took “partial” credit for the warm ties with Germany, the country’s biggest trading partner. He said he enjoyed “excellent” personal and working relationships with Chancellors Helmut Kohl, Schroeder and Angela Merkel.

“What had to happen, happened,” Putin said of the events of 1989 and 1990. “Dividing the nation had no future. It was obvious to me that it’s impossible to hold back a nation in the modern world.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Maria Kolesnikova in Moscow at mkolesnikova@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 8, 2009 11:39 EST