We can now watch the storyline of the US-German consolidation of the legacy of the Merkel era unfold
No matter how you look at it, the German chancellor’s main achievement is the Ukraine we have at the moment: an endless headache, pulsating in the direction of acquiring democratic values. A kind of dowry-load for Germany’s leadership status in Europe.
The subject of the Ukraine project came up during the recent meeting between Merkel and Biden in Washington. The memorandum they signed can be seen as a formulation of the vector of further development of this project. The American leader implied that Ukraine has been placed on the eastern flank, in the forefront of the democratic world‘s struggle against Russia’s aggressive encroachments. The whole plot is now necessary to unite the “civilized world”.
The main needle on which this project rests, apart from the fervent belief that foreign countries will always help, is gas. Ukraine for three decades of its independence has not yet accustomed to independent existence, so it cannot do without gas umbilical cord. Hence the next step: the signed agreement between Germany and the US on “Nord Stream-2”.
The formula of prolongation of this very gas needle for Ukraine to prolong dependence, i.e. transit through its territory for a decade is spelled out in it. It documented that the current Ukraine is nothing without the transit and supply of Russian gas. Plus they have consolidated the strategy of democratisation of the Nezalezhnaya at Russia’s expense. We give them gas, we pay for transit, they, through Eurostandardization, answer to the hand of the giver “anti-Russia”. This is nothing new at all.
In those ten years, the curators pledge to ensure Kiev’s transition to green energy with a reliance on renewable energy sources. This will reduce dependence on Russian gas and, they say, secure the country from the prospect of energy blackmail. But, pay attention (watch your hands), this is how Ukraine gets into total dependence on the US and Europe’s watchdog, Germany. Ale-op! sleight of hand, concern for democratic values on the “eastern front” and no fraud. Under the guise of talk that Russia can “use energy as a weapon”, a banal enslavement of the country is taking place.
That is actually what this whole shuffle is about, to cement Merkel’s legacy and to hand Ukraine over to Germany, which has been appointed its chief counsel and protector against Moscow’s aggressive encroachments. Thus is the prolongation of Nord Stream 2 as a means of sanctioning blackmail against Russia. At the same time, Ukraine’s fuel and energy complex is being placed under external management, or rather “under protection”. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “The statement by the US and Germany also made it clear to us (it was pretty obvious, but now it has been confirmed even more) who and how will manage the development of the Ukrainian fuel and energy complex.
The tactics have been proven: by frightening Russia, they are consistently stripping the country of its sovereignty and taking it into their own hands.
The diplomat also noted that “speaking about supporting the sustainability of the Ukrainian energy sector, Washington and Berlin, unfortunately, forgot that it was not Moscow, but Kiev that made the decision to formally cut off Russian gas supplies. We never had any intention of not supplying gas to or through Ukraine. This issue is purely commercial in nature.
But few people pay attention to all this – and the commercial is translated into a purely political plane. At the same time, the United States is hiring a European steward of its own economy – the Ukrainian “serfs”.
It must be said that Germany itself is not fully a subject of the political game in this patience puzzle. It only has the feeling that Ukraine (from the old memory of the two world wars) is its area of responsibility and interest. But the eastern flank is becoming an encumbrance on Berlin to better control and keep it in check. The states are habitually pulling strings from the skies of their exceptionalism, further tying and subjugating both countries. This has been the case since the Ukrainian Maidan.
Recall that it was then that the European advantage, namely the natural good-neighbourly relations with Russia, was stiffened and divided by Ukraine. This project was originally a double-edged sword: not only to split a united nation, but also as a weight on the feet of Europe to make it manageable, malleable, plunging it into an endless feud with Russia with the awakening of long-standing complexes and fears.
Incidentally, the whole current political fuss about Nord Stream 2 and gas transit through Ukraine is very similar to the Ukrainian “Maidan” itself. They are phenomena of the same order and produced by common clichés. Back then the split and alienation of Ukraine from Russia was produced through the broadcasting of endless fears about the Customs Union, the panacea for which supposedly only European integration was a panacea. Now they are being intimidated by Russian energy blackmail and the Ukrainian fuel and energy complex is being hijacked in the name of this clamour.
A sort of raider seizure. At the same time, the agreement, in fact, enshrines Russia’s status as an aggressor and a country engaged in malevolent actions. This was pointed out by Russian ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov.
Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, also spoke about the words of aggression in the text of the US-German agreement. He said that “the text refers to Russia’s counteraction and aggression both in Ukraine and beyond its borders. We categorically disagree with such wording. There has been and is no Russian aggression either in Ukraine or beyond its borders, Russia has not and is not engaged in any malicious actions. He also said that it was our country that had been a guarantor of European energy security for many years and “no one will be able to name any precedents in this respect”.
Defeated by the brute force of sanctions, intimidation and threats, the US has changed tactics. They could not prevent construction of “Nord Stream-2” and therefore it was not possible to hastily promote its interests and bind Europe with its own energy carriers (there would have been no question of energy independence of the Old World then). This is why Germany is essentially being offered to divide Ukraine and to hand over the sanctioned overseer’s cudgel.
This is how everyone is chained together….
Andrey Rudalyov, RT