In 2018, Donald Trump attacked Germany, Europe’s largest economy and one of NATO’s most important members. The U.S. president warned that the country was making a big mistake in totally dependent on Russian energy. Trump’s speech at the United Nations was laughed by Germany’s UN delegation. Today, Western media are mocking and laughing at Germany’s ignorance.

 

The Germany’s UN delegation was not the only one who disagreed with Trump though. German Chancellor Angela Merkel too was reluctant to follow the U.S. blindly, insisting that Europe needed to decide its own policies, make their own decisions and rely less on the United States, particularly under Trump administration. Of course, Merkel had a closer relationship with Russia than the U.S.

 

The former German leader, grew up in Soviet-occupied East Germany, was known for speaking Russian and keeping good diplomatic ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin. In fact, it was during the Merkel administration that Germany stepped up its energy links to Moscow, including the US$11 billion Nord Stream 2. Despite the U.S.’ opposition, Merkel pushed for the gas pipeline.

Germany wanted to get rid of all its nuclear plants. The country’s industry, desperate for cheap and reliable energy sources, loved the Nord Stream pipelines. With the flip of a switch, Russia’s Gazprom can send cheap gas to Germany. Like the original Nord Stream pipeline (completed in 2011), Nord Stream 2 will deliver gas over 1,200 kilometers under the Baltic directly to Germany’s doorstep.

 

With a combined annual capacity of about 110 billion cubic meters of gas, the twin pipelines will allow Russia to circumvent overland routes through Ukraine. Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 was used as a pretext by the U.S. to oppose the project. Critics of the project, especially the U.S., said there were other ways for Germany to get natural gas, including from America.

 

However, Germany and Russia insisted that the project was purely commercial. And from the commercial point of view, none of the options suggested could beat the simplicity and reliability of Nord Stream. After all, for decades during the Cold War, Germany had purchased Russian gas. In order for German companies to compete internationally, electricity must be cheap.

The Nord Stream pipeline project has been opposed by the U.S. even under President Barack Obama, arguing that it will give Russia too much leverage. In truth, Washington wanted Germany to buy gas from the U.S., not Russia, supposedly the enemy of NATO and European Union. Everything changes after Social Democrat Olaf Scholz became Germany’s Chancellor on Dec 8, 2021.

 

The end of 16 years of conservative rule under Merkel saw a shift in Germany’s policy. Olaf was under pressure to stop the Nord Stream 2. After Putin recognized breakaway parts of eastern Ukraine – the Donetsky and Luhansk republics – and ordered troops into the region, it gave Chancellor Olaf an excuse to halt the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which was pending since Sept 2021.

 

From the beginning, it was all about money and capitalism. Ukraine condemned Nord Stream 2 because it will lose approximately US$2 billion in transit fee from Russia as the pipeline will bypass Ukraine. The U.S. opposed Nord Stream 2 because it wants to increase its liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Europe. To achieve that, a war must begin.

The Ukraine War didn’t start on February 24, 2022. It has begun since 1991 when the U.S. government spent US$5 billion promoting “democracy”. Even before the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the U.S. was fueling anti-government sentiment through mechanisms like USAID and National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in efforts to destabilize Ukraine.

 

The NED is a key organization in the network of American soft power that pours US$170 million a year into organizations dedicated to defending or installing U.S.-friendly regimes. According to Washington Post‘s David Ignatius, the NED functions by “doing in public what the CIA does in private”. Meaning the NED targets governments who oppose U.S. military or economic policy.

 

The U.S. strategy, as usual, was to open Ukrainian markets to foreign investors and give control of its economy to giant multinational corporations. It’s a new way of colonization. And the key tool is the IMF (International Monetary Fund), which is funded by and represents Western financial capital and governments. By giving aid loans, the IMF would push governments to adopt policies friendly to foreign investors.

In Ukraine, the IMF had long planned to implement economic reforms to make the country more attractive to investors. In 2013, after early steps to integrate with the West, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych turned against these changes and ended trade integration talks with the European Union. Months before he was overthrown, he restarted economic negotiations with Russia.

 

Soon, a destabilization campaign against the Yanukovych government was orchestrated by Washington in a coup disguised under “nationalist protests”, the same way China had accused the United States of influencing the violent pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The 2014 uprising that saw Yanukovich forced from office was quickly followed by Putin’s annexation of Crimea.

 

During the protests that eventually brought down the elected government of Viktor Yanukovych, Senator John McCain and other U.S. officials personally flew to Ukraine to encourage protesters. McCain told thousands of Ukrainian protesters – “Ukraine will make Europe better and Europe will make Ukraine better”. It was clearly an interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine.

On February 6, 2014, as the anti-government protests were intensifying, an anonymous leaked an audio between Assistant Secretary of State Nuland and U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt. The two U.S. officials were heard discussing which opposition officials to be appointed as the leader of a new government. They agreed to appoint Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

 

Weeks later, on February 22, after a massacre by suspicious snipers escalated the tensions, the Ukrainian parliament illegally removed Yanukovych from office. Yanukovych then fled the country, calling the overthrow a coup. On February 27, Yatsenyuk became prime minister. Interestingly, after the violent coup, “Azov Battalion” – a paramilitary militia of neo-Nazi extremists – were absorbed into the Ukrainian armed forces.

 

But why did Putin quickly annex Crimea after the collapse of Yanukovych government? The Crimean peninsula, which was part of Russia until it was transferred to the Ukrainian Soviet Republic in 1954, is home to one of two Russian naval bases with access to the Black and Mediterranean seas. A Crimea controlled by a U.S.-backed Ukrainian government would be a major threat to Russian naval access.

Essentially, the installation of a pro-U.S. government will not merely see the integration of Ukraine into the U.S.-dominated economic sphere. Western powers also want to integrate Ukraine militarily. It’s an open secret that the U.S. has sought the expansion of NATO. After the demise of the Soviet Union, the U.S. promised the new Russia that it would not expand NATO east of Germany.

 

Yet, despite the agreement, the U.S. lied and continued building out its military alliance closer to Russia’s borders, ignoring Moscow’s repetitive objections. Even before Yanukovych was toppled, NATO members had pledged in 2008 to extend membership to Ukraine. It was the removal of the pro-Russian government in 2014 that Putin feared it’s a matter of time before Ukraine joins NATO.

 

The U.S. has successfully provoked Russia to invade Ukraine, but cleverly accused the Russians of aggression. The Ukraine War has created a lucrative business to American weapons manufacturers. Not only Ukraine bought weapons from the U.S. (to be billed later), the European Union and even Taiwan have been spooked into purchasing more weapons.

The recent destruction of Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, believed to be sabotaged by the U.S.-British intelligence, was arguably the last chess move to permanently remove Germany’s dependence on Russian oil. On November 6, 2015, during routine survey operation, the Swedish Armed Forces discovered a mine destroyer belonging to NATO at the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.

 

Fine, democracy wins and autocracy lost. But now that Germany, and Europe for that matter, have become dependent on U.S. energy, has that solved the energy crisis triggered by the Ukraine War? Last week, Germany’s economy minister accused the U.S. and other “friendly” gas supplier of charging “sky high” prices for their supplies.

 

Furiously, Economy Minister Robert Habeck complained – “Some countries, even the friendly ones, are charging astronomical prices in some cases. Of course, this brings problems that we must talk about. The United States turned to us when oil prices soared, and the national oil reserves were tapped in Europe as a result. I think such solidarity would also be good for curbing gas prices”.

However, it would be naive to think the U.S. would return the favour and stop ripping off the European nations. The plan was to provoke a war and charge the EU an arm and a leg for oil and gas. That was why both Nord Stream pipelines were blown up in the first place, allowing the U.S. to milk Germany and the 27-bloc EU nations. They cannot go back to Russia anymore.

 

Facing a hard winter with gas shortages predicted across the region, Europe’s energy crisis has already seen people considering “horse dung” to heat their homes. Some Europeans are so angry over sky-high energy bills that they burnt them. Others are starting to gather firewood for winter as they can’t afford energy bills that are 10 to 15 times the 10-year average.

 

Germany has merely jumped from the frying pan into the fire. Henry Kissinger once quipped – “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.” The best part is while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has formally applied for a fast-track membership of the NATO military alliance, the U.S. is pussyfooting over the membership.

 

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October 12th, 2022 by financetwitter

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