**German Foreign Minister says Berlin ignored Russian actions, and this ‘is now taking its revenge in the most brutal way.’**
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Tuesday that German politicians knew about the dangers of increasing energy dependence on Russia after its 2014 Crimea annexation — and were now paying the price for ignoring the problem.
“Actually, we as Europeans have known since 2014 at the latest … that we must become completely independent of Russian fossil fuel imports, and a strategy was put in place to diversify our energy imports,” Baerbock said in a speech at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue.
“However, we did not tackle this, and this is now taking its revenge in the most brutal way,” she added.
German politicians — primarily the previous government of former Chancellor Angela Merkel — have come under closer scrutiny over the country’s problematic reliance on Russian energy imports, as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s years of aggressive geopolitical positioning culminated in a full-scale assault on Ukraine.
Germany now finds itself in a bind as it struggles to balance demands to ban energy imports from Moscow with the potential such a ban would have to plunge its own economy into recession.
Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck, who like Baerbock is from the Green party that was not part of the previous government, harshly criticized Berlin’s past decisions.
“Energy policy is always power policy, is always interest policy, is therefore always security policy. And if you look back, you almost can’t understand how we could be so blind to overlook that,” he told the conference in Berlin.
Despite Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and a Russian-influenced armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine in the following years, Germany increased its dependence on Russian energy imports and also approved the construction of the controversial Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
Angela’s ears are burning.
We mustn’t forget that it was her party that led a totally irrational hysteria campaign against nuclear energy.
> with the potential such a ban would have to plunge its own economy into recession.
They can ask greece for a bailout
To be fair, everyone knew. You didn’t need to be privy to top secret intelligence reports to see this coming.
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**German Foreign Minister says Berlin ignored Russian actions, and this ‘is now taking its revenge in the most brutal way.’**
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Tuesday that German politicians knew about the dangers of increasing energy dependence on Russia after its 2014 Crimea annexation — and were now paying the price for ignoring the problem.
“Actually, we as Europeans have known since 2014 at the latest … that we must become completely independent of Russian fossil fuel imports, and a strategy was put in place to diversify our energy imports,” Baerbock said in a speech at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue.
“However, we did not tackle this, and this is now taking its revenge in the most brutal way,” she added.
German politicians — primarily the previous government of former Chancellor Angela Merkel — have come under closer scrutiny over the country’s problematic reliance on Russian energy imports, as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s years of aggressive geopolitical positioning culminated in a full-scale assault on Ukraine.
Germany now finds itself in a bind as it struggles to balance demands to ban energy imports from Moscow with the potential such a ban would have to plunge its own economy into recession.
Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck, who like Baerbock is from the Green party that was not part of the previous government, harshly criticized Berlin’s past decisions.
“Energy policy is always power policy, is always interest policy, is therefore always security policy. And if you look back, you almost can’t understand how we could be so blind to overlook that,” he told the conference in Berlin.
Despite Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and a Russian-influenced armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine in the following years, Germany increased its dependence on Russian energy imports and also approved the construction of the controversial Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
Angela’s ears are burning.
We mustn’t forget that it was her party that led a totally irrational hysteria campaign against nuclear energy.
> with the potential such a ban would have to plunge its own economy into recession.
They can ask greece for a bailout
To be fair, everyone knew. You didn’t need to be privy to top secret intelligence reports to see this coming.
Everybody knew they fucked up