Merkel declares war on Trump over Nord Stream 2

Messenger of Caucasus ^ | December 20, 2019

[mosesdapoet]

Re:You have a hard time believing cheaper energy is a crucial national interest?

What makes you draw that I’m against cheaper energy conclusion ? While I’ll grant that today’s Russia is not Stalin’s Russia Germany becoming dependent on a major energy source which would have no qualms cutting it off is the point.

[Berlin_Freeper]

“No qualms cutting it off” as if you are posting about beverages at the ballpark is ridiculous.

[Wuli]

NATO is pfft.

[billakay]

Russia is also not one-party, and most definitely not fascist. Keep trying, and maybe don’t try telling a person who has recently lived in Russia, how Russia is.

[lodi90]

I spent a month in Russia last year and am familiar with the country/culture. Sounds like you went native. No surprise and typical. Good luck.

[Cronos]

My opinion is that post Putin there is no one. The country will have a new “Time of Troubles” like after Ivan Grozny died

[bert]

Does Russia really matter?

Russia is weak and ineffectual with a pitiful economy that cannot maintain it’s own navy

[Cronos]

Bill -- Candor didn't say RUSSIA was communist

Candor said Merkel is a Communist disguised as a german Burgher socialist.

She seeks detente with Russia ,which is under Putin, an expansionist power bent on re-establishing the USSR.Russia is chiseling aqay at Europe.

He called Merkel a Commie

and he called Candor an expansionist power that wants to re-establish the USSR.

I agree with you that Putin's Russia is not "communist" any more - however it IS expansionist and Putin see's the USSR as another incarnation of Tsarist Russia. So he doesn't want the system back, but he wants the power back

[mistfree]

gizactlty

[billakay]

Thanks for the post. Yes, I understand that he didn’t call Russia communist, but there was a strong implication of that from my reading, with calling Merkel Communist, and talking about the return of the USSR (Communist). The important thing to realize, I think, is that Putin wanting to return his country to its former level of strength is not necessarily a bad thing (and doesn’t require territorial expansion, which as Putin understands, would be very hard to deal with, even if it could be done). His comment about the collapse of the USSR being a catastrophe needs to be understood in the context of the culture. It had nothing to do with Communism, and everything to do with the loss of prestige/status and decades of suffering that the country had to go through afterwards. Today, Communism is fully in the past in Russia, and the only time you will see a hammer and sickle flown is when memorializing the veterans who fought and died under that flag to help save the world from fascism.

[NorseViking]

USSR commentary is picked out of context. The point was civil unrest, ethnic cleanings and general deterioration of civilization on its periphery as a result of its collapse.
As for Merkel she is a conservative by German term. Look at her opponents to start with.

[billakay]

I’m glad to hear that. I shouldn’t have assumed. I do have to say though, I’ve done month-long trips almost every year going back to 2009, but living there in 2017-2018 was an entirely different experience. Living somewhere foreign (as a primary residence, with no house/home waiting to return to), and experiencing every aspect of day to day life, and communicating with people and interfacing with government offices on the regular gives an entirely different perspective about a place.

Just FYI, I don’t have an ideological attachment to Russia, but rather a familial one. My Armenian in-laws have lived in Southern Russia since 1987, and we moved there in 2017 because we were expecting twins and wanted/needed grandparents around to help out after the birth.

[Cronos]

The thing about "return of the USSR" -- I know die-hard anti-communist Russians who look back on their country's prestige as the USSR.

And the USSR was in many ways Tsarist Russia - so a Russian empire.

The important thing to realize, I think, is that Putin wanting to return his country to its former level of strength is not necessarily a bad thing -- That's not really true - it is a bad thing. Because "Russia" in 1914 included the Baltic states, Central Asia etc.

Today, Communism is fully in the past in Russia, -- yes

to help save the world from fascism. - the funny thing is that they didn't "save the world" directly but rather inadvertently - the Soviets allied with the Nazis. And at the end of the war, the Soviets won half of Europe

[billakay]

You are absolutely right. Lots of regular people suffered an awful lot because of the collapse, and this is what Putin was referring to. One of the reasons Putin is loved (particularly by the Armenians, at least) is that he shut down a lot of BS nationalism and ethnic strife against the minorities.

[FLT-bird]

There’s nothing the Germans can do except bluster and act petulant.

*IF* they were to push to get US troops out, it would be welcomed with open arms by many Americans who are beyond tired of paying for Germany’s defense.

*IF* they were to do anything on trade, need I remind everyone who has a trade surplus with whom? If that trade were to be slashed by several rounds of tit for tat sanctions, it is Germany that would suffer most of all since they run the largest trade surplus with America.

The Germans simply don’t hold any cards to play and have much more to lose.

[FLT-bird]

It’s been past time to withdraw from Germany. That should’ve been done 25 years ago.

[NorseViking]

AFAIK Merkel is a strong NATO supporter.

[FLT-bird]

This article had no effect on me. I’ve been calling for the US to stop paying for the Yurps’ - specifically the Germans’ defense sine the early 90s when I lived there the first time.

[FLT-bird]

That would put them ahead of Germany which has been leeching off of America for 3 generations while acting extra special bitchy toward America for the last couple generations.

[billakay]

the Soviets allied with the Nazis. And at the end of the war, the Soviets won half of Europe

I'm going to say something controversial (at least here), but this is my observation/analysis of history. Russians, in general (and this includes the Soviets) DO NOT LIKE WAR. They avoid it if at all possible, until you attack/provoke them (then they turn into a monster). The USSR allied with Germany when it looked like that would allow them to avoid being in the war. Not ideologically pretty, but fairly rational. Hitler turning on the USSR was one of the critical mistakes leading to his defeat (which the USA is quick to take full credit for, even though Russia sacrificed millions of people for it).

Throughout pretty much all of (relatively) modern history, this pattern has held, and most of the Cold War Soviet "expansionism" was explicitly provoked (see Z. Brzezinski's successful plan to provoke the USSR into invading Afghanistan). For goodness' sake, the Tu-95 "Bear", the "most feared" Soviet/Russian long-range bomber first flew in 1952, and had its combat debut in Syria in November 2015! This is not the pattern of a warmongering, expansionist people.