/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/7OL3CA55JZI57IRN2P3H62NSHE.jpg)
Gestures
Isn’t that called cutting off your nose to spite your face?
Closing those nuke plants looks a lot less smart now, eh?
That surprises me, I must admit. will they keep that up once the citizens start complaining loudly? That is unlikely in my opinion.
When the Germans stop the flow of existing Russian oil and gas that still arrives uninterrupted into Germany, and stops sending hard currency to the Russians, their actions would really matter. Putting a pause on the opening of Nord Stream 2 is as significant as sending 6,000 helmets to the Ukrainians.
Virtue signaling. The Krauts have to give the appearance of supporting the US and NATO but the fact of the matter is that they are dependent on Russia for a good share of their natural gas supply. They really, really need the Nordstream 2. And of course the Russians know this too. The Krauts will posture but come December Nordstream 2 will be fully operational.
A little surprising.
Perhaps Putin went too far for even his German partners when he indicated in his rambling speech that the country of Ukraine is a historical mistake and does not even have the right to exist as its own country.
There was also an implication in his speech that Belarus also does not have the right to exist as an independent country.
Putin could have just focused narrowly on the recognition of DPR/LPR because of the continuing years of unresolved violence in that area and the lack of a way forward under the Minsk agreements, but instead he gave a sweeping, paranoid speech imagining wholesale changes for tens or hundreds of millions of people based on Putin’s own crude historical analysis, exactly the kind of thing Hitler was wont to do.
This is what happens when leaders are not subject to term limits and become de facto presidents-for-life. They are no longer satisfied just to fix the potholes, they begin to project grandiose visions of the future in which they are the key world-historical figure.
We’ve seen with Saddam, Qaddafi, the leaders of North Korea, a lot of these presidents-for-life.
I wonder if any Russians who voted for the constitutional amendments removing term limits on Putin are having second thoughts now.
BWAAAHAHAHAHA!! HA!
That’ll show em!
Hey krauts? Why dont you shut down some more coal mines and shut down some more power plants? That works!
They only suspended their approval...far from canceled.
If I were Putin, I’d have some ‘technical difficulties’ in supplying gas on Nordstream 1 and other pipelines, and then fix them when Nordstream 2 is opened up.
Relax , Germany has it’s renewables up and running , LOL
This is just the European version of Kerry's "voting for before voting against" nuance.... The song and dance is for appearance. One shouldn't forget that TWO ex-chancellors promoted Nord Stream, and one now works for the Russians, and has for decades.
"Mehr Schein als Sein." More appearance than reality
US’ second largest imports of oil are from Russia. Canada is number one, and Mexico is #3.
The US cannot supply the European needs for LNG unless something like 700 tankers a day were off loading.
Reminds me of Australia, at the US request stopped selling wine to China. The US still sold wine to China.
The purpose must not be to punish Russia or China, so, it must be to ruin producers like Australian growers, and freeze the little people until they are so desperate they cede everything to their Governments.
governments that have already forked out billions to try to cushion the impact on consumers
***************
No problemo.
Those governments can print as much money as they want. Billions and trillions more. No limits on their power now.
Kinda late, my lord how the EU has screwed things up.
They have no choice but to approve and use, this is Public BS, while behind the scenes the pressure is mounting.
Russia has pipelines to Europe through Poland, Ukraine, the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. With Germany’s cooperation, and assuming Poland and Ukraine are on board, three of these can be shut down. Pipelines from Russia go to Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. A bit more complicated, but it would appear possible to shut them down.
Big question is: could Azerbaijan, Norway, U.S. and Canada rev up production and distribution?
Germany literally turned off all their nuclear power plants. France just announced that they will be building DOZENS of new nuke electricity power plants. France already gets around 70% of their electricity from nuke plants. It what world is France the one making better choices? Yikes!
Trump was delivering large shipments of LNG (liquid natural gas) to several areas of Europe. Obama / Biden want to ‘keep it in the ground’ and starve us of low-cost energy.
Way to go shutting your nuke plants down Germany!
Smart move Sherlock!
Happy now ?