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Nord Stream 2: Angela Merkel gives Vladimir Putin a farewell present

2021-07-22T09:51:25.949Z


The Russian President wins the battle for the pipeline. It's bitter: In the end, Angela Merkel devoted all her strength to a project that is weakening Ukraine and damaging the climate.


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Photo: Hannibal Hanschke / REUTERS

It has been official since yesterday evening: Germany and the USA settled the dispute over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. The Biden government gives the go-ahead for a highly controversial project that has strained German-American relations and opened deep rifts within Europe. What the German government is celebrating as a diplomatic success is, however, a compromise to the detriment of Ukraine and the climate: the Nord Stream 2 toad is covered with plenty of frosting. It doesn't get any tastier.

It starts with the Germans and Americans negotiating over the heads of Ukraine - at whose expense Nord Stream 2 is going.

That's lousy style.

The European allies of the USA and Germany are confronted with a fait accompli - and Ukraine resigned itself to non-binding declarations of intent and financial consolation.

In the declaration there are many melodious proclamations and few concrete obligations of Germany.

Nord Stream 2 was Vladimir Putin's geopolitical project from the start.

It gives the Kremlin a free hand to increase political and military pressure on Ukraine without jeopardizing the gas business with the EU.

The current deal with Washington leaves this flank open.

Worse still: the federal government rejected the American proposal to include a so-called kill switch clause in the pipeline's operating license.

It would have made it possible to cut off gas supplies if the Kremlin takes aggressive steps against insubordinate neighbors.

In view of Russia's recent military maneuvers and Putin's revisionist policies, this fear is only too well founded - most recently he wrote in an essay that the border between Russia and Ukraine has no historical or moral justification.

The federal government has negotiated the only provision from the compromise on Nord Stream 2 that would have clearly linked the operation of the pipeline and the security of Ukraine.

Germany's vague announcements

That borders on a free ticket for Putin.

The joint statement by the USA and the German government made vague announcements that Germany would "act at the national level and press for effective measures including sanctions" in the European Union in response to new aggressive measures by Russia.

It does not say what a reason for such measures could be or what they would look like in practice.

One can imagine how impressed the hardliners in the Kremlin will be by this threat.

You know your Pappenheimer in Berlin.

In a joint statement, the Ukrainian and Polish foreign ministers put their fingers in the wound.

They reaffirm their countries' opposition to Nord Stream 2 as long as there is no answer for the security risks involved.

And you rightly refer to the unsuccessful efforts of Ukraine to gain the prospect of accession to the EU and NATO.

Here, too, Germany played and continues to play a key role.

The bitterness of many Ukrainians at being left out in the rain by the West is all too understandable.

A vague promise of a billion dollars

Because the compromise is full of vague assurances to the address of the Ukrainians, but poor in concrete obligations: The Ukrainian gas supply, it says, should, if necessary, be secured independently of Russia. In addition, a “Green Fund” has been announced for Ukraine, which is intended to promote energy efficiency, renewable energies and entry into hydrogen production.

The binding amounts promised are manageable.

The Federal Republic is to contribute $ 175 million in seed capital.

Further investment is expected to come from the private sector, up to a billion dollars - but those are vague promises for the future.

The sums are far from sufficient for the integration of Ukraine into a European hydrogen network.

In any case, this idea is only a long way off - unless we would accept the production of "yellow hydrogen" with electricity from Ukrainian nuclear power plants.

The Kremlin ties gas transports to the good behavior of Kiev

The planned continuation of gas transit through Ukraine beyond 2024 is on shaky ground.

The Kremlin has already announced that it will make future gas exports via Ukraine dependent on the good conduct of Kiev.

There is no need for this from an energy point of view.

Nord Stream 2 and the newly constructed “Turk Stream” pipeline together have a capacity of 90 billion cubic meters per year.

They completely replace the previous gas transit through Ukraine.

That is exactly what it is all about.

Or should the import of Russian natural gas to Germany be increased even further in the future?

That would be a festival for the Kremlin and a violation of the German and European climate targets.

But if these goals and climate protection are taken seriously, the consumption of natural gas will have to drop significantly in this decade.

Without the two to three billion dollars in revenue from gas transit, Ukraine lacks the means to modernize its extensive pipeline system and convert it for hydrogen export.

A triumph for Putin

If this pseudo-compromise comes through, it will be a triumph for Putin: despite the continued intervention in eastern Ukraine, despite all the threatening policies, despite the chumbarism with Lukashenko, despite the massive repression in Russia and the criticism of the European Parliament, the Germans are pulling out on their bilateral project through with Russia.

It is incomprehensible why Washington and Berlin are giving up the lever to link the commissioning of Nord Stream 2 to substantial concessions from Moscow.

The question now is how the American Congress reacts to this relenting of the President.

Because politically, Biden got nothing for it: neither a more decisive German attitude towards China nor a clear obligation to increase the German defense contribution within the framework of NATO.

A few weeks before the election, this federal government would no longer have a political mandate for this.

The irritating question remains as to why Angela Merkel has thrown everything into the balance in order to bring this unfortunate project to a dry sheet during the last few meters of her term of office - without any consideration from the Kremlin.

Her commitment to Nord Stream 2 overshadows her previous Ukraine policy.

In the past it has shown a clear willingness to put a stop to the Kremlin with sanctions if necessary.

She campaigned for members of the opposition such as the feminist protest band »Pussy Riot« and, most recently, the poisoning victim Alexej Navalny. And in the end, she did everything she could to make a project a success that would strengthen Russia's influence in Europe in the long term. It's not a good legacy.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-07-22

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