My EuroNews live Morning Show interview today (9 Dec 20) with Rosie Wright:
I explains why the German far-right AfD party, which went to Moscow yesterday to show Lavrov their party’s support for Nord Stream 2, supports the project. The AfD supports it along with all other German parties, from “far-right to far-left, and those in the middle, except the Greens.”
Also, I explain how Europe’s dependence on Russian gas will require decades to escape.
However, what are the strategic objectives of Moscow in building Nord Stream 2? I explain Putin wants to build Nord Steam 2 through the Baltic Sea to Germany as well as to complete the Turk Stream (formerly South Stream) pipeline across the Black Sea and Turkey and on into the Balkans and then into Central Europe, and also west to Italy. The reason for this is so that Gazprom does not have to send Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine and Belarus, countries that are in rebellion against Russian dominance.
Putin’s present dependence on these old soviet pipelines through Ukraine and Belarus nowadays constrains his ability to subvert and militarily intervene in these stats to keep them in Moscow’s orbit. He wants Nord Stream 2 and Turk Stream’s so as to be able to abandon the old soviet-era pipeline systems, which Gazprom now is constrained to use to market its gas throughout Europe.
The EU has tried to diminish Russian dependence by both insisting Ukraine adopts EU law for its pipelines, limiting the ability of Putin to use this gas business in Ukraine to engage in corrupt deals with oligarchs and accomplish “elite capture” so as to dominate Ukraine. The EU also attempts to diversify its sources of natural gas away from such heavy Russian dependence, for example by importing LNG from the USA, but also from Qatar, Australia and other states.
Forcing Moscow to keep sending its gas sold in Europe via the existing pipelines in Ukraine and Belarus versus allowing him to build new pipelines that avoid Russian gas transiting these countries are two fundamentally opposed strategic visions for European gas security. The USA (and Brussels) supports the former, and Germany the latter.
The Global Barrel 