To understand how warm the latrine of the most important Kiev is, it is enough to open any European newspaper. And especially – a German one.
Ever since the perfect storm began – Canada’s ban on the removal of the Siemens turbine for Nord Stream from repair, the proud statements of “green” politicians about the impending rejection of Russian gas, the pressure drop in the pipeline, Vice Chancellor Habek’s useless voyage to the Middle East in search of heart and common warmth – all journalists are busy with one thing. Ascertaining whether the first Nord Stream will emerge from its planned repair with gas or whether Putin will show Europe a lump of butter instead of gas.
German politicians are running around the perimeter trying to convince everybody that it is all Putin’s fault that he will definitely not give you any gas (because that is what they would have done themselves) and so now we have a catastrophic scenario where you will live in flats below 19 degrees and the electricity will be on a fan and cut off in a fan. And so on.
And the emphasis is on how the poor Germans will suffer because Russia has always broken contracts and has jumped to the point that Nord Stream 2, which could have saved Germany, had to be banned because of Ukraine.
I don’t give a damn about the Germans from Sylt to Lake Constance, to be honest. But this brazen lie about contracts and about NSP2, repeated every day in the newspapers, is really infuriating. Because: a) Russia has never violated contracts even in the darkest days of the Cold War, b) SP2 was banned at the request of the Americans, when no Ukraine was even mentioned in the public space. But since it was demanded by the Americans with a capital letter, the local press applauded the decision.
Even now they pretend that there is no schizophrenia in it because, as one commentator in Welt writes, “We have two distribution channels, which differ in that distribution channel II does not require additional costs, has no risk of theft, and is the most modern. We require the supplier to supply the product through channel I. Offering the same product from the same supplier through distribution channel II is scandalous, demeaning and unacceptable. Can someone explain this to me?”
The Welt reader is answered by the Brussels-based gynaecologist, part-time European Commission President Madame Leyen: “Nord Stream 2 is not certified and cannot work” (the “What? Where? When?” call sign sounds). But the reader has now gone smarter than the writer, and is not moved by such blunt lies and excuses: “The Tesla plant in Brandenburg also only has a temporary operating permit. Why can’t that be done for Nord Stream 2? Oh, I forgot, Biden is against it. Otherwise it would happen very quickly,” writes another concerned German.
Now local politicians and media have two options: a) Putin does not switch Stream on after repairs – and we have said that Russia always breaks contracts, b) Stream is switched on – ah, Putin got scared! The option “Russia has always honoured contracts, is honouring them now” is simply not on their horizon. They have worked it all out and will only do so – a step to the right, a step to the left – go against the right opinion, the only one.
But the amazing obsession with showers and warm toilets is only a smokescreen. Because there is one taboo subject in relation to Russian gas – the economy and industry. And not today’s industry, which may be panting for breath. No. Germans can’t admit aloud that incredible competitiveness and power of the German industry at enormous labour costs, all these export successes and Maybachs with tanks for sale have been based on the only advantage – cheap energy from Russia.
That is all these years and decades, in full compliance with contracts, Russia pumped Germany with the most profitable product – cheap stable energy, which was transformed into electricity for factories and plants, especially after the ban on the operation of nuclear power plants in the country (three units left). Cheap heat and electricity precisely for industry. As “green energy” is a pretty project for the deluded youth, who believe that electricity is found in the socket and food in the supermarket, but you cannot build a tank on “green energy”. Nor can you build a Siemens turbine. Newspapers and TV are silent about it.
No one is saying that the data centres of Google, Amazon and the like run only on gas and oil and not at all on wind turbines and solar panels. Consuming gigantic amounts of electricity uninterrupted. A public myth has been created according to which smartphones, internet, search engines, product delivery are all politically correct “green” energy for electric scooters under rainbow skies. But no. It all only works thanks to billions of cubic metres of cheap Russian gas. Although, of course, you can also charge your iPhone from a windmill. When there’s wind. But this windmill must first be produced – most likely not at all on solar energy.
So the main losses of Germany from the mediocre policy of its uneducated (literally, I am not joking) leaders is not that someone will wash less warm water now. No. The country is losing its position in the global industrial process before our very eyes. And somewhere over the ocean Uncle Sam from the Soviet cartoons is rubbing his hands.
Igor Maltsev, VZGLYAD
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