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MOSCOW, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Russia’s ambassador to Washington said on Friday that he did not believe Ukraine would have attacked the Nord Stream gas pipelines without the tacit approval of the United States, and that Russia would identify and punish those behind the attack.
Why wouldn’t the average Germans response be something like: well yeah, fair enough. Our tax money was used to finance Russias war of agression and they thought they could manipulate us into not helping Ukraine by threatening our energy supply.
The pipeline was a major source of income for the Russians and without 3 small nudges nothing tangible was going to change in the short run, while Ukranians where dying.
If it is a Ukrainian government sanctioned OP or not, the dependence of Germany on Russian gas needed to stop, so instead of having to watch your politicians slow walk the ordeal, Germany flexed its muscles and fixed the issue fast and efficient.
I’d suggest you think about that too.
Nordstream 2 never went into operation. It was tested and held pressure, but Germany never certified an operator, stopped the procedure to do so two days before the 2022 invasion, and never picked it up again. The pipeline is wholly owned by the Russians.
When the pipeline blew up plenty of gas terminals were already under construction. Russia was playing games with what came through Nordstream 1. They were caught red-handed trying to drain gas reserves before the invasion. There was absolutely no fucking way Germany would in any sense have continued to rely on Russian gas with or without the pipeline blowing up.
Relying on Russia in the face of all the fuck fuck Games the Russians play is exactly what they did and expanded on for over a decade. Also if Germany wasn’t buying, others on the gas network where. So I don’t know if I would agree with your closing statement.
One pipeline was open and gas was flowing, so it was a major source of income for Russia. If only NS1 would stop operation NS2 would have been certified and have taken over in days.
Russia wasn’t sending any gas through NS1 at that point. Or at least thereabouts, remember those shenanigans around compressor turbines which were in repair and whatnot.
If you seriously, seriously think that Germany would risk an economic crash over pivoting away from Russia then I can’t help you either. There might’ve been some unease over “will Germany actually side with Russia over fears about the economy” but that a) makes no economic sense and b) nope we don’t just fuck over allies.
As to Handel durch Wandel: The whole thing cut both ways. The idea was to make war prohibitively costly by enmeshing economies – and, indeed, Russia’s economy is in the gutter. Ideally it would have made them not attack at all but a ruined Russian economy is a proper consolidation price. They e.g. can’t produce ball bearings necessary for their trains, just as a random example of many: They became reliant on German products, a thing that non-enmeshment could never have achieved. The Soviet Union was self-sufficient in those areas, and Russia would still be had Germany not gone in and wiped key strategic Russian companies off the market.
And the other direction? The gas? Figures that that wasn’t a dependency, at all. Maybe, maybe, after shit went down and we were able to see the actual impacts it would be prudent to re-evaluate past narratives, but, well, I can’t force you.
Because that’s not true. That’s the propaganda narrative that is repeated again and again.
German tax payers did pay exactly zero (I don’t know enough about finances in Finland or France to know if they (indirectly) paid taxes for it. Those two -and Gazprom -where the only countries involved with the rest being private companies). German tax payers also didn’t care for European companies wanting to inrease their imports from Russia as Germany’s own gas consumption was stagnating for years.
The only actual interest for the project in Germany was pushed by the local government in the state were the pipeline ended… because of additional jobs in construction and operation created.
PS: Do you want to know who was Ukraine’s biggest financial supporter since 2014? Also a detail that probably won’t match your chosen reality.
What should they have changed?
Not opening NS2 in the first place? That is exactly what happenend. Before Russia started their invasion.
Or should they have reduced the deliveries through NS1 from nothing to even less… oh, wait…
Oh, I know. Should they have called Russia’s bluff about technical problems and then start legal procedings so German companies would not go bankrupt from payments for gas that they wouldn’t receive to finally close the Nordstream chapter? Again, that’s exactly what happenend.
And more than a month later an unused (NS1) and unoperational (NS2) pipeline exploded.
Please point out the change those “small nudges” (interesting choice of words for an act of war against a countries infrastructure btw…) brought.
Why do Germans react the way they do? Because we are sick of the lies and how screwing up then pointing fingers at Germany is Europe’s tried and true strategy number 1.
Germany’s dependence on Russian gas was slightly below EU average (no wonder when they were Europe’s 2nd biuggest gas exporter with no production because everyone imported Russian gas via pipelines ending in Germany)… Yet lying and phantasizing about Germany being dependent was easier than to acknowledge their mistake. And to add insult to injury some countries even screamed loudly at Germany for still importing Russian gas while getting exactly that gas for themselves, usually without it ever reaching Germany but only theoretically being bought from Germany on paper (looking at Poland in particular).
As already mentioned above Germany was one of the few European countries with a trade surplus not financing Russia. Yet telling the fairy tale of how they alone paid for Putins war is easier the telling a truth your voters wouldn’t like. Blaming someone else is much better when you want to keep your governing job.
Oh and let’s not forget oil. Let’s talk about the fact that every single country along that pipeline massivel increased their imports from Russia all through 2022 and the first half of 2023… everyone but Germany that is, while everyone screamed about Germany financing Russia via oil imports.
It’s also not limited to Russia in any way: Half of Europe has sold the majority (or all) of their harbors to China. But when Germany reacted by selling a minority share of one single terminal to compete with the massive disadvantage of chinese ships stopping anywhere else then shipping to Germany via land routes there was a massive international outcry why the evil Germans would try to sell out to China. Do you want to guess who worked on correcting that problem at home? Spoiler: Nobody, because the usual “but Germany”-diversion worked.
If you want more diverse reactions from Germans: Get a new scapegoat for once. Until that happens you will only see two reactions: ignoring the daily “Germany bad”-narrative or telling you very clearly what kind of bullshit this is. And judging by the amount of downvotes, insults and accusations of being a Russian troll I get here, the latter group is so small nowadays that people aren’t used anymore to get their propaganda narratives challenged.
Either that or people are really not able to argue anymore, operating mostly on feelings of righteous zeal and attacking everything challenging their dogma. But I’m (for now) still too much of an optimist to believe that version…
Not even the terminal, but of terminal operations: The Chinese said “if we’re going to be frequent customers we want to have a say in scheduling etc” and that’s perfectly fair. It’s also a common.
Any actual physical infrastructure is completely off limits to foreign investment, and “foreign”, here, from the point of view of Hamburg, means “anyone who is not the city itself”.
Also did you know that Hapag-Lloyd switched alliances and is going to chum up with Maersk, now. The Hanse and the Danes working together, who would’ve thought. At this rate next thing that’s going to happen is buying up the Netherlands, much of Bremen’s harbour is already vassalised.
Whoa… besides the fact “Germans bad” was not part of my message you seem to be mixing and conflating stuff.
Trade balance just means Germany also sold a lot to Russia… stuff like diesel engines, pumping equipment etc etc.
And either be angry at Russia for causing the whole war … with all its consequences or not. But being angry at Ukraine for blowing up a Russian pipeline seems kinda selective.