The Baltic Sea pipeline is part of Moscow's war preparations against Ukraine.
Chancellor Scholz must now support Foreign Minister Baerbock and bring Putin to his senses.
A commentary by Georg Anastasiadis.
Why did Kremlin chief Putin pursue his plan to channel Russian gas through the Baltic Sea so doggedly, even though there was never a shortage of pipeline capacity via mainland Europe?
In view of the Russian saber-rattling, it should now dawn on those who are less geostrategic, such as SPD Chancellor Scholz, who insists that the Baltic Sea pipeline is only a purely private-sector project: Pipeline construction has been a central part of Moscow’s war preparations against Ukraine for years.
The Baltic Sea tube is at the center of the threat against the Ukraine
Only if it is certain that an attack on the neighboring country will not jeopardize Russia's lucrative gas supplies to Western Europe - and that would be the case if there were no bypass via the Baltic Sea in addition to the pipeline through Ukraine - can Putin send out his tanks. The Baltic Sea tube is at the center of the threat against Ukraine, and from the Kremlin's point of view, it is what makes the war feasible in the first place. And it is this that allows Putin to dictate to the West which countries Russia claims for its forecourt. In the Baltics, they suspect that Ukraine would be Russia's next victim, but not the last. Even peaceful Sweden is already arming itself against military aggression.
The Merkel-Putin pipeline has turned Europe into a three-tier security zone.
Berlin has sacrificed the security of not just Ukraine, but all of Europe, for a small economic gain.
It is high time that Scholz corrected the mistake and stood behind his foreign minister.
Putin is a cool, calculating strategist.
The chancellor has to make it clear to him that if he attacks Ukraine, the pipeline is dead. A new war against a European country must be prohibitively expensive for him.