Meeting with 78-year-old President Joe Biden at the White House Sept. 1, 43-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wants payback for shielding Biden and his 50-year-old son Hunter’s work on a corrupt Ukrainian natural gas company board. Joe landed Hunter, without any energy experience at all, a $83K a month job on Burisma Holdings’ board. Zelensky helped get former President Donald Trump impeached in 2019 for a fake quid-pro-quo where Trump allegedly tried to extort Zelensky to dig up dirt on the Bidens. Now Zelensky wants payback, asking Biden to nix the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany, something designed to prevent Ukraine from selling natural gas to Europe. Biden was closely tied to Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings, natural gas company. Biden’s meeting with Zelensky antagonized 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Biden’s discussion with Zelensky centered on joining an alliance against the Russian Federation to stop Russia’s influence in the region. Zelensky demands that Putin return Crimea to Ukraine, despite the fact that he supported a Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup that toppled the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. While Putin hosted the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, the CIA-backed coup chased Yanukovych out of Kiev. Ukraine’s 52-year-old chief anti-Russian mouthpiece Vitali Klitschko led the coup, eventually becoming mayor of Kiev. But Putin recalls well how the coup took place while he hopelessly hosted the Sochi Winter Games. Once the Games ended Feb. 23, Putin ordered the Red Army into Crimea, where Russia houses its warm water fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea. Putin invaded Crimea because it gave him ultimate leverage in the Black Sea.
Zelensky would do anything to get back Crimea, or, for that matter, to retaliate against Putin for whatever reason. “If Gazprom achieves the launch of Nord Stream 2 and we are forced to optimize the [Ukrainian] system, there will be no option for Europe to return to Ukraine,” said Sergiy Makogon. Makogon, who heads Ukraine’s natural gas system, pressures Biden to cancel the Nord Stream II Pipeline. Makogon should be talking to 67-year-old German Chancellor Angela Merkel, knowing Zelensky sees Russia as a threat to Ukraine’s Gross Domestic Product, begging Biden, at the 11th hour, to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline Gazprom and Ukraine have had their tensions selling natural gas into the European markets. Gazprom shut off supplies to Europe in 2006 to 2009, causing widespread shortages and skyrocketing prices. Zelensky asked Biden to shut down the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline.
Germau Chancellor Angela Merkel recalls all-too-well when Russia shut off the natural gas spigots in 2006-2009. She vowed building the Nord Stream 2 that natural gas should be more available in the indefinite future. Former President Donald Trump tried to tell Merkel to stop the Nord Stream 2 before Germany was hopelessly dependent on Moscow for natural gas. Zelensky has many motives with Biden, most focused on sabotaging the Nord Strem 2 Pipleline, returning Crimea and stopping more Russian annexation of Ukraine territory in the restive Donbass region. Watching Biden and Zelensky’s every move, Putin knows that U.S.-Russian relations are at any all-time low. Putin wants the Biden to stop bashing Russia if he wants to improve U.S.-Russian relations. So far, everything Biden does antagonizes the Kremlin and sends Beijing into seizures.
Merkel didn’t care about hurting Joe’s feelings when it came to the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline. What’s known for sure is that Zelensky pushed Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyden and European Council President Chalres Michel to back more economic sanctions against the Kremlin. Ukraine worries that Putin has made an end run against Ukrainian energy, leaving only Putin with access to natural gas. Merkel told the Western Alliance to butt-out when it came to pressuring to end the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. Merkel, who finishes her term Sept. 26 wants to deliver energy security to the Germany for the foreseeable future. Few in the EU thought that German’s decision to move ahead with Nord Stream 2 though it was good to establishing energy dependence on Russia. Zelensky thought it was not too late to stop the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline.
Germany wanted a stable, inexpensive source of natural gas in Europe, didn’t care about East-West politics. Europeans have grown more impatient with the Ukrraine, knowing the extent of corruption in the once Soviet satellite. If Zelensky got his way, he’d watch the U.S. and EU in a shooting war with the Russian Federation. Zelensky thought if he could get the U.S. and EU into a shooting war with Russia, he could turn off the spigot of cheap Russian natural gas. Zelensky wants Merkel to commit to a transit agreement for natural gas, despite her arrangement with Putin to supply Germany natural gas into the foreseeable future. “People just have a short memory—2009 is the year when Russia’s Gazprom made Europe freeze,” said Makogon, asking the EU to reconsider its relationship with the Russian Federation. Ukraine will do practically anything to start a conflict with Russia.
