Germany Defies Biden on Nord Stream 2 Pipeline, Offers Russia ‘Deeper’ Energy Cooperation
“Russia’s vessel Fortuna has resumed laying pipes for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Danish waters, the project consortium said on Saturday.”
Ignoring U.S. President Joe Biden’s review of the Russian-German gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, Berlin has doubled down on its energy dependence on Moscow.
Last week, Germany’s state-run DW News reported that the $11-billion pipeline project was nearing its completion:
Russia’s vessel Fortuna has resumed laying pipes for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Danish waters, the project consortium said on Saturday.
The pipe-laying vessel had suspended construction of the almost completed pipeline between Russia and Germany due to US sanctions. (…)
The controversial project will double the amount of Russian natural gas export to Germany through the Baltic Sea pipeline.
The Biden administration is currently conducting a review of President Donald Trump’s policy towards the 760-mile undersea gas pipeline that will soon link Russia to Germany, the U.S. media reported on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, German Economic Minister Peter Altmaier announced Germany’s intentions to expand the Nord Stream 2 pipeline beyond the supply of natural gas. Berlin wants to team up with Moscow in “repurposing” the channel to also receive hydrogen, an alternative fuel source.
“We offer Russia a deeper cooperation” in hydrogen fuel production German Economy Minister Altmaier told a forum of Russian and German businessmen.
Germans “expect the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, that will bring Russian gas directly to Germany and is nearly complete, to provide a future hydrogen import route while Russia develops renewable power for electrolysis, or methane pyrolosis [sic], to produce hydrogen,” Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Russia is currently working on technology and infrastructure to convert natural gas to hydrogen aimed at German and European markets. A project Russia’s state-owned oil company Gazprom “might undertake is a construction of a blue hydrogen plant at the German end of the Nord Stream pipeline to supply its hydrogen to the European market,” Forbes reported last month.
Trump saw German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s policy of energy dependence on Moscow as a security threat for Europe and the transatlantic alliance.
“Germany is totally controlled by Russia,” he warned during the 2018 NATO summit. “They will be getting between 60 and 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline,” he estimated.
Given Merkel’s lack of support for NATO and her stance towards Moscow, in June 2020, Trump announced the withdrawal of some 12,000 U.S. soldiers stationed in Germany.
There is some media speculation on potential U.S. sanctions on European companies involved in the pipeline construction. Still, going by the German action, Merkel expects Biden to take a consolatory approach, reversing his predecessor’s tough stance.
The Biden White House is proving German assumptions right by “freezing” the outgoing president’s troop withdrawal.
Encouraged by such moves, German “ministers are now working on creative solutions they can present to President Joe Biden’s team that may persuade them to drop sanctions,” the UK daily Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
The leading German Business daily Handelsblatt also believes that Washington will accept the Russo-German pipeline, albeit with some caveats.
“In conflict over the Nord Stream 2, U.S. and Germany are moving towards a compromise,” the newspaper reported on Sunday.
Berlin wants to persuade Biden with a ploy similar to the one devised by John Kerry to sell the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Merkel’s government promises “snap back” sanctions on Russian gas if Moscow decides to misbehave or invade one of its neighboring countries like it did to Ukraine and Georgia.
“One idea being floated [by Berlin] is the concept of ‘snapbacks’ — a mechanism that would allow Germany to shut off Nord Stream 2 if Russia puts pressure on Ukraine, say, by arbitrarily cutting supplies through its gas transit system,” the Financial Times reported.
That’s a dumb idea even by the Biden White House standards. It’s somewhat like an addict promising to “sanction” his sole drug dealer.
Since it takes two to tango, Merkel is banking on President Biden’s gullibility. As the WSJ reported: “The Biden administration could also waive the application of sanctions under a national-interest clause, placating Germany, a critical European ally.”
If that happens, President Biden will perhaps be handing Moscow its most significant geostrategic victory since the end of the Cold War.
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Comments
Remember: Susan Rice is in charge. Not that addled degenerate Biden.
She is doing the work of obama: destroying America. Give her 4 years, and she’ll do it.
Secession, anybody?
“Handing Moscow its most significant geostrategic victory since the end of the Cold War” is a feature not a bug for the Biden junta.
How did Trump that evil Russian spy, pull this off from Mar Lago?
Good thing we are back to being respected in the world with Joe at the helm….SMH
We might as well accept the pipeline. Germany has no intention of going to war with Russia or anyone else. Germany will not meet any NATO obligations. If Russia were snap up the Baltic states and Ukraine Germany would do nothing more than protest mildly. It would be ‘regrettable’.
So we need to understand that the Germans are going their own way. This means that NATO is nothing more than a fig leaf.
We should accept the pipeline, and the Germans should understand that they don’t need an American military presence in their country any more.
Considering the present path of the USA under the Dems, would you place more “faith” in Harris/Biden or Putin? It still bothers me th think that Russia is going to fare better with Iran and China as partners. Mother Russia is neither East or West…it’s Russia. Aligned with Islamic terrorists and hegemites CCP is odd in the long run.
Don’t overestimate Russia’s diplomatic canniness. Stalin actually expected Hitler to uphold Moloov-Ribbentrop. Putin may genuinely believe Xi can be trusted too.
Fair point, though I think the partnership he’s counting on is with Merkel, not Xi. He understands that China, from time to time, casts a covetous eye north. The Germans aren’t ever going east again.
Well Chinas interests align better with Moscow, no pesky human rights, economic aligned etc. I don’t think trust comes into it at all only self interest.
There is an argument for the US to become energy self-sufficient and even a net exporter of energy, but there is also an argument of hold our energy in reserve and sucking the rest of the world dry, especially since we can pay in dollars that we can print simply by typing a 1 on a computer and then holding down the 0 key.
Once Russia is devoid of natural resources, minerals, oil, and natural gas, they simply do not have much else to offer either the world of their citizens other than fine legacy in music, dance, and literature.
Of course, if the idea that fossil fuels are in ay meaningful way truly finite is a myth, we always seem to be finding new sources of this things, especially if new energy technologies come on line to replace these sources before they run out, the above strategy is rather useless and only empowers Russia and the like.
On the whole, I do not think we will run out and there already exist plenty of alternatives to oil and natural gas if we chose or need to utilize them, such as nuclear and coal, and yes, even solar and wind within reason, and conservation and efficiency enhancements.
Solar and wind will do nothing substantial to change the future of travel. Nothing. Electric bikes don’t fly and they don’t do well in the freight world.
Biden has already doomed the federal fleet (including the post office) to go all in with 100% EVs. EVs in CA mean the shorfall noted below gets worse. EVs in harsh winter climates do not perform nearly as well.
Texas and CA are now two poster children for the woes of thinking otherwise.
CA has a 30% annual shortfall in generation. Biden’s plan will spread that idiocy to more and more of the country.
Texas has now learned that wind and solar in the winter are dangerous options in significant percentage. When demand goes up and generation systems fail, the impact is compounded. Power outages for days in sub-zero temps is not just inconvenience. It’s life threatening.
This is the future for this country since the Biden junta will be an absolute disaster as they aim to mimic the failures of temperate climates of California in the rest of the country, ignoring the harsh reality of winter.
The only viable path is nuclear power. And we know that will have absolutely no acceptance in the Biden junta.
Invest in generators. They will be a requirement with the path we are heading.
Biden will give in across the board and then pat himself on the back for his “diplomatic triumphs”. The press will cheer and contrast him with the evil, isolationist Trump.
Four years of this. . .
Seems I remember another admin that would do that…..oh yea biden was part of that admin as well.
I’d say we don’t need to waste any efforts on protecting the Germans from the Russians in the future, but Buyden* is too much of a pussy to say something like that.
How ironic. As we stumble into socialism, Venezuela finally figures things out.
Why would anyone expect the East German Angela Merkel to do anything different? If the Warsaw Pact still existed she would have Germany apply for admission. At least Trump understood her, Susan Rice agrees with her.
I don’t really see Russian aligning with China, they trust them as much as Russia trusts us
No one trusts us after what Hillary and Obama did to Gaddafi
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We need to cast Germany to the wind. Pull all our troops out. Let the Germans sink or swim.
The problem is that we still have to honor our commitments to Poland and the other countries between Russia and Germany, which allows the Germans to be as intransigent as they care to be.
Perhaps the answer is to move our troops to Poland and Hungary. Of course that isn’t about to happen as long as the “East Bloc” continues to oppose the EU diktats on accepting “refugees” (aka alien invaders who will, advertently or inadvertently, conquer Europe for Islam).
Forgot to add the that it isn’t about to happen as long as we have an administration from the Socialist/Communist Party.
First the Germans bought their version of the Green New Deal. Then the people saw their utility bills skyrocket and reliability head for the basement as coal and gas were replaced with Wind and Solar (an “iffy” proposition under normal circumstances). And now they recognize that they need natural gas more than the gas Quid Pro Joe and The Ho are passing.