Former German Chancellor Merkel was Aware of Russia’s Gas Supply Blackmail While Still in Office

15 comments

1. Everything we face today is the direct consequences of her taking the easy Russian gas/money/cooperation.

2. The west gambled that Russia would need our money more than we needed their gas. Putin certainly seems to have thought that he could break us just by shutting off the supply, but here we are and gas is fairly cheap once again. We didn’t freeze to death the first winter and the second one was completely normal. In the mean time Putin is missing out on a lot of euros and all their pipelines to Europe are useless which means they have to make new infrastructure to the south and east. This at a time where their economy and workforce is already stretched thin.

   The gas deals were a carrot for Russia, an incentive to play nice. They spit out the carrot after a few bites so they could play their dumbass zero sum strong man games, but now they are getting hungry quick and the nearest other carrots are thousands of kilometers away and looking kinda scruffy.

   The gas deals was a gamble from Europe’s perspective. It gave peace a chance and we didn’t risk much on trying it. Putin was dumber than we had hoped, that’s on him not us. He wanted to be a tsar or die trying and now he has painted himself and all of Russia into a corner.

   The gas deals wasn’t a mistake. It is our policy to use trade to bring people together, it’s our culture. It works as long as we are dealing with smart people and when we don’t it gives us the economic advantage to slowly grind down our enemies.

   We will win this one. There is no doubt about that. The only question is how many people have to die first.

3. We are going to take decades to undo the damage she caused Europe, truly one of the worst politicians to have been at the helm.

4. Now, Putin is killing poor Ukrainian soldiers with the EU money that flooded Russia for about 20 years. Without EU money, he wouldn’t be able to modernize his army.

5. Finally we are all on the hate Merkel train

6. Merkel gave the German people what they wanted, short term gains with no sound long term strategy. She’s emblematic for the biggest weakness of democratically elected leaders.

7. Politicians in a nutshell, they sit in office for a short term and during that they do whatever they want, as long as they get to look and speak confidently in front of a camera, making you think they know what they are doing. And if that ends up in disaster eventually, well that’s someone else’s problem down the line.

8. Anyone surprised?

9. She is a modern Neville Chamberlain.

10. I start believing she is working for the russians. She put Germany in the hand of Putin for energy and welcomed 1 million musulman migrants which was the start of huge score for pro Putin far right party AFD.

11. In retrospective she was indeed one of the most mediocre and short-sighted politicians in Europe

12. Dude…Putin told her YEARS ago that she’s like a bride on a wedding night…draw your own conclusions.

13. To the surprise of absolutely no one.

14. Her and her policies regarding austerity and friendliness to putin have done irreparable damage to Europe.

15. If only anyone had warn them…

    https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/russias-proposed-new-pipeline-threatens-us-national-security-interests

    > The new project, Nord Stream 2, will enable Russia to provide natural gas to Germany directly instead of going through Ukraine. This has stark consequences for Ukraine: What little leverage Ukraine holds over Russia comes largely from the fact that Russia has to export most of its natural gas through Ukraine in order to reach Europe. If Russia can bypass Ukraine, the pipeline would make that leverage obsolete.

    https://2017-2021.state.gov/fact-sheet-on-u-s-opposition-to-nord-stream-2/

    > Nord Stream 2 is a tool Russia is using to support its continued aggression against Ukraine. Russia seeks to prevent it from integrating more closely with Europe and the United States. Nord Stream 2 would enable Russia to bypass Ukraine for gas transit to Europe, which would deprive Ukraine of substantial transit revenues and increase its vulnerability to Russian aggression.

    https://www.pap.pl/node/892091

    > The resolution goes on to appeal for the above in the name of European values and solidarity with Ukraine and for care for stability and security in Europe as well as to increase EU resistance to Russian pressure.

    https://www.dw.com/en/nord-stream-2-deal-stokes-fears-of-russian-aggression-in-eastern-europe/a-58618700

    > A joint statement by the foreign ministers of both countries, Dmytro Kuleba and Zbigniew Rau, said the decision to stop opposing the construction of Nord Stream 2 “has created [a] political, military and energy threat for Ukraine and central Europe, while increasing Russia’s potential to destabilize the security situation in Europe.”

    https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/huri/files/ns2_report_21_may_2020.pdf?m=1595958323

    > Thankfully, given TurkStream’s limited capacity, Moscow has not been able to entirely diminish Ukrainian gas transit, but the completion of the much larger Nord Stream 2 would
    enable the Kremlin to make good on its threat. Such an eventuality would eliminate gas transit payments to Kyiv, and hence provide Moscow with an economic cudgel to use in its ongoing campaign of aggression toward Ukraine. The hard security implication of the move is more ominous: if Moscow is able to eliminate its own dependence on existing Ukrainian pipeline infrastructure – some of which sits physically adjacent to the current line-of-contact in Donbas – there would be one less strategic deterrent to an extension of Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine.

    https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/how-german-state-helped-moscow-push-pipeline-weakening-ukraine-2022-02-24/

    > Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is the landfall site for the line, Nord Stream 2, which bypasses the former Soviet Republic. The United States long argued the line would weaken Ukraine; Germany and Russia insisted the project was purely commercial.