In the latest drama between the mess that is European politics, the USA is now threatening sanctions against both Germany and Russia over the construction of a German-Russian pipeline called Nord Stream 2:’
Washington has warned that proceeding with the Russian-led gas pipeline project, aimed at bringing natural gas to Germany’s northeastern Baltic coast, could result in sanctions for those involved.
The US opposes the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and may introduce penalties on the project due to its potential to increase Russia’s “malign influence” in Europe, according to Sandra Oudkirk, US deputy assistant secretary of state for energy diplomacy.
“We would be delighted if the project did not take place,” the senior diplomat told reporters in Berlin, stressing that the project could be sanctioned under a bill passed by Congress in August 2017.
The legislation, allowing the US government to take steps against Russian energy projects, was passed in response to Russia’s alleged involvement in the Ukraine crisis, as well as the Kremlin’s alleged meddling the US presidential elections.
“Any pipeline project – and there are many multiple pipeline projects in the world that are potentially covered by this sanctions authority – is in an elevated position of sanctions risk,” Oudkirk said.
The official added that Washington also has security concerns connected to the project, as it provides Moscow with an opportunity to install undersea surveillance equipment in the Baltic Sea, which is seen as a sensitive military region. Moreover, the White House is concerned that Ukraine will be bypassed as a transit point for Russia’s gas, and thus deprived of transit fees.
Russian President Vladimir Putin reassured German Chancellor Angela Merkel, during talks on Friday, that the launch of Nord Stream-2 does not mean Russia will halt gas transit through Ukraine. Putin said Moscow is ready for talks with Kiev about a new transit deal.
Last week, Merkel said that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline could be impractical if it threatened to leave Ukraine vulnerable to reduced gas transit revenue. The chancellor pledged to provide reassurance to Kiev, with some form of guarantee agreement expected to be issued.
We don’t believe guarantees are enforceable,” Oudkirk said, stressing that Moscow had clear intentions to use Nord Stream 2 to bypass Ukraine.
The official rejected allegations that Washington opposed the pipeline amid its own interests in the European energy market. “We’re neutral on the means of conveyance,” Oudkirk said, noting that Europe could get gas from the Caspian Sea, Eastern Mediterranean, Algeria and, eventually, the US and Australia, reducing its dependence on Russian energy sources.
The warning came as a consortium of European companies, led by Russia’s Gazprom, announced the start of preparatory works for constructing the pipeline. Nord Stream 2 is set to go through the territorial waters of Finland, Sweden and Denmark. Countries involved have approved the project. (source)
Let’s take a look at several pictures of the gas lines between Russia, Germany, and the other major source of oil and gas, which is the Middle East and North Africa to better understand the reasons for the tension.
First, the Nord Stream Pipeline:
This pipeline clearly provides a direct line between the area from approximately St. Petersburg, Russia to Greifswald, Germany, which is located in the northeastern part of Germany on the Baltic Sea and just under a 2 hour drive northwest of the large Polish city of Szczecin. This is a close, direct line between Poland and Russia and while it is a sea route, it runs over an area historically contested between Russia and Germany, which is the northern border of Poland leading up to Kaliningrad/Königsberg through the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
If this pipeline is not included, Germany has four more ways that she can get gas as the map shows:
These ways are:
-Through Russian-backed lines in Poland
-Through Turkish-backed lines in Turkey
-Through North African lines crossing into France and Italy
-Through Norwegian oil supply lines coming from off-shore drilling
Keep in mind that the gas coming through these lines also has to go to other Western European nations as well, who are all heavy gas consumers. Effectively, the largest and most reliable sources will be either from Russia or Turkey. Therefore, these are the two that merit the most serious consideration.
The gas lines correspond with a larger project that goes over land and is known as the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC), which includes ocean as well as rail lines to transport goods. The Nord Stream pipeline is a part of this plan, following both a “standard route” but wit the NTSC, would be able to form a complete, continual circuit between Russia and the Middle East through Iran that would circambulate the lines going through Turkey:
In response, Turkey, as we have noted, is building a railway line to connect herself by land to Central Asia and the Far East with Europe and Germany, likewise going around Russia in a plan called the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route:
This agreement will include a very competitive and high-speed railway network that will connect Europe, the CIS nations and China. The railway will network parts of Eastern Europe (Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine), the Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan), Russia, and Muslim Central Asia (Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan). It will reach all the way to East Asia, in China.
This is part of a plan to create a rail road network interconnecting Europe, the Middle East and much of Asia. It goes back to a 2016 meeting in which railway authorities of Azerbaijan, Kazakstan and Georgia, signed an agreement to create the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), by which goods would be transported from China through Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia to Europe via Turkey and Ukraine. (source, source)
We know for a fact that since the end of the Second World War, the US and Russia have been engaged in a systematic war with each other. This conflict is an extension of natural geopolitical conflicts between the US and Russia that have existed for several centuries. As Russia was communist during the time before and after the Second world War, and as communism is a form of International Socialism, the Americans supported Nationalized Socialism as a “counterbalance” to Russian influence. The name of this program was Operation Gladio, and it is to a large extent the reason why the CIA exists is to perpetuate and reinforce this program under a myriad of sub-programs and operations on both an international and a national level.
The ultimately end of Gladio is, as far as one can tell, a complete breakup and destruction of Russia herself. This is the reason for the curious US influence in “independence movements” in autonomous regions throughout Russia such as Tartarstan, or in Uzbekistan is not for the benefit of the people, but in order to cause internal chaos in Russian-influenced areas the same way that the US started the conflict in Afghanistan by arming and creating the Taliban in order to pull the Russians into a self-destructive conflict.
Likewise, from what evidence is available, this conflict is tied to the rise of Artificial Intelligence and robotics as preparation for another war in which the major deciding weapon will not be machine guns and poison gas as in World War I, and not the atom and nuclear weapons as in World War II, but killer robots as part of World War III.
We know also that the “refugee crisis” has been fueled by both Germany and the USA, for the people who are coming are not invading, but they have been invited in and their passage as well as welfare has been paid for by the governments of America and Western Europe, brought about by the destabilization of their nations, which in turn are being intentionally destabilized by the Americans and Europeans. This has lead in turn to a return to nationalism and a rise in nationalist militarism, which as one so far can tell is going to be used to drive support for this coming war.
The rise in nationalism comes also as Germany and Turkey working with the USA and Japan have been rebuilding their militaries as well as expanding economic interests in areas historically tied to the old imperial possessions and war machine of Germany and Japan, such as East Africa.
Now, let’s return to the Nord Stream pipeline. Why is the US so “concerned” about Nord Stream?
The answer, is because it is a potential threat to the US desire for war with Russia.
Recall that in 2016, the US and Germany began stationing troops in northeastern Poland and Lithuania, effectively surrounding the Russia enclave of Kaliningrad which is a historically contested area between Germany and Russia that is also less than a day’s drive to either St. Petersburg or Moscow.
A gas pipeline between Russia and Germany in this region, while it will certainly not “solve” real long-standing historical disputes, does two things:
-It forces a level of mutual economic cooperation between Germany and Russia
-It places a degree of dependency of Germany on Russia
Russia has gas to sell, and Germany needs gas to buy. Germany is very economically prosperous, much more so than Russia, and Russia needs money. If Germany starts buying Russian gas, then there is a mutual interest for the two nations to work together for each other’s economic benefit. If a war were to start, then Russia would turn off the gas lines to Germany and Germany would stop paying Russia for gas- both nations would “lose” because Germany would have to find another seller and Russia another buyer, both of which would be respectively more expensive and less profitable.
Additionally, if Germany is purchasing Russian gas, it means that she relies in part on Russia for her economic support. If this is taken out, and given that Western economies are dependent on gas, she becomes economically weakened until a new source can be recovered. If there is a large amount of dependence, then it will increase Russian influence because Germany will not want to lose Russia’s cheap gas and will be more willing to listen to her, her neighbor, than the loud-mouthed American attempting to instigate war from over the Atlantic Ocean.
Basically, the US doesn’t want Germany buying Russian gas because the US does NOT want peace. The US wants to make Germany as dependent on her as possible as well as compel her to buy from US “approved” sources because she wants to generate anti-Russian hatred in order to justify a war with Russia for her own geopolitical ends.
This is not to say that Germany is innocent, for Germany and Russia have had many wars, and Germany has her fair share of blame to have. The issue is that such a pipeline, while it may not stop a war, poses a potential impedance to or mitigating factor in a war because of the economic importance it could bring, and the USA wants to ensure that there are none of such obstacles that exist. It is part of the reason why the USA encouraged the separatist movement in Ukraine, for while Russia and Ukraine have always had their tensions, they also have a long relationship with each other. To sow strife between the two is to foment conditions for war as much as encouraging peace is to suppress the desire for war.
It is the same reason why the USA was so involved in the creation of the refugee crisis (not to say that Germany did not have a role, as she had and has a major and critical one), because it is simply an attempt to trigger a war with the Russians. The care is not for the lives of the people affected in either Africa, the Middle East, or Europe, because all these people are viewed by the eugenicists and their supporters of the current day as pawns in a great game of chess who are expendable and useless except for the functions which they believe they are useful for.
Russia is a strong nation. She may be able to fight a war against Germany and win. She may be able to fight a war against Turkey and win. She may be able to fight a war against Japan and win. She may even be able to fight a war against the USA and win, although the chances are quite slim.
She most likely cannot fight and win a war against all four.
The USA knows this. Russia knows this.
As such, it is in Russia’s interest to promote peace, harmony, and economic prosperity as much as she can among her neighbors, even if they are historical enemies.
The USA, owing to her distance, is able to act as rogue as she wishes, and to that her interest is to promote hostility, nationalism, and as much separatism as possible in order to press Russia from as many sides as she can in order to destroy her.
Last century, Russia was called the enemy of “freedom” and “liberty,” and presented as the icon of all that is evil, perverted, and destructive about the world.
One century later, and a curious development has happened, for the USA is now supporting separatism, rogue nations when it benefits her, and has become an element of destabilization for many countries as well as supporting the historical tendencies of Germany, Turkey, and Japan to militarism.
What strange, and interesting times we live in.
It is like watching “The Three Stooges,” but with countries.
At least the Three Stooges are funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXHVVXAcNYM
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