Sources inside the German Foreign Ministry say that for months US diplomats have been working to undermine the proposed 745-mile underwater pipeline between Russia and Germany. Michael Wood, Bush henchman and currently ambassador to Sweden now breaks the surface to state that the Baltic pipeline is “a special arrangement between Germany and Russia” that “bypasses the Baltic States and Poland.”, and demands that the EU speaks “with a single voice to counteract the power of Russia’s energy weapon.”
The undersea pipeline will run from Vyborg in Russia to Greifswald in Germany. Chancellor Merkel calls it a “European strategic project.” And she is right. As well as Germany it will supply oil and gas also to France, the Netherlands, and to Italy thank goodness. It will supply the United Kingdom too, but the New Labour regime is keeping very quiet about that. The German Chancellor, on a visit to Sweden, said that Sweden has a right to implement environmental licensing procedures, but nothing more.
“This will be the most stringent environmental assessment that a pipeline has ever been subjected to.”, a Berlin diplomat remarked.
Deputy Chief of Mission John Koenig at the US embassy in Berlin said that he was surprised by the US ambassador to Sweden's statements. 'He underscored that the US position remains unchanged: Washington will issue no comment on the private pipeline deal. Koenig suggested that the article [in which Ambassador Wood protested the pipeline and its avoidance of anti-Russian former Soviet satellite states] may have been insufficiently screened in Washington -- a PR mishap, so to speak.' (Der Spiegel).
This is yet another 'not paying enough attention' explanation - the most inane recently being the explanation of why the President of Georgia thought he had United States' support to attack Russia. The foundations of the long settlement of post Second war Europe are shifting.
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there is of course a 30-year history of the US trying to persuade European countries not to import gas from Russia
and as to alternatives we might come up with, to avoid freezing ? they are attempting to legislate to stop anyone buying gas from Iran
but then again they really hate it when European countries (mostly UK and Spain) outbid them for cargoes of LNG on the water ...
the next cold war could be very cold indeed !
as it happens, Germany (= fully addicted) will do whatever it takes to keep the gas flowing. The flash-point will be when they seriously reconsider their accelerated nuke decommissioning schedule, by way of some additional security - many Greens and some Reds would rather freeze ...
Russia now is not the Soviet Union is it ND?. It is a capitalist country with economic institutions no more statist than those of the United Kingdom. What can this strand of US foreign policy be after when it seeks to keep us in the cold and in the dark?
I'm pleased Mrs Merkel isn't putting up with it (nor the Italian government either - don't know what the French and Dutch think, but can make a guess). And note that the countries that are being by-passed, the thing that so irritates this US political grouping, are presumably sympathetic or subservient to its positions in US foreign policies. Which is odd because the Polish government is ultra pro-European Union. The split with the Polish president must be even bigger than is publicly shown.
Anyway, this is infinitely more interesting and important than the phantasmagorical Labour conference.
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