Former President Donald Trump, 75, told conservative talk show host Glen Beck today that Ukraine is the European Union’s [EU] problem because they approved the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. Trump said Russia owns Germany because of dependence on energy sales, now slated to rise to 70%, something his administration opposed strongly. Trump tried to sanction Russia for the Nord Stream 2 but, in the end, 67-year-old former German Chancellor Angela Merkel wanted the pipeline to secure Germany’s natural gas supplies for the foreseeable future. “Europe should be totally involved,” Trump told Beck, concerned now about a Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Germany made a deal with Russia with the pipeline, and Nord Stream is a disaster,” Trump said, referring to Germany’s growing dependence on Russian energy.
Trump’s attitude about Ukraine is that it’s not relevant to U.S. national security, something Europe should deal with. “Germany made a deal with Russia with the pipeline. and Nord Stream is a disaster,” Trump said, referring to Germany’s dependence on Russian natural gas. “And I’m the one that brought it up. Nobody even knew about it. I used to talk about it all the time. The they’d [press] say, ‘Oh, he’s weak on Russia.’ Putin would say, ‘you’re killing me with this pipeline ,’ but I got it stopped,” Trump said, referring to stopping the $11 billion project. But as Trump found out Merkel was determined to complete the project, assuring Germany natural gas into the foreseeable future. Looking in the rear view mirror, Trump forgets that nothing could stop the Nord Stream 2 as long a Germany wanted to move forward with the pipeline. Nord Stream 2 has become new leverage over Putin.
Whatever happened with Nord Stream 2 in the past, 79-year-old President Joe Biden wants German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to used the pipeline as leverage over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. Former Obama White House Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, 83, said sanctions alone won’t stop Putin from invading Ukraine. Panetta, like other Democrat Party officials, parrot Biden saying that a new invasion was imminent, even though Putin has emphatically denied any intent to invade Ukraine. Everyone wants to know why would Putin mass troops near the Ukrainian border in Eastern Ukraine unless he planned to invade? But Putin has told the press that he wants the U.S. and NATO to stand down in Ukraine, stop supplying Ukraine with offensive-and-defensive weapons with which to potentially attack the Russian Federation. So far, the U.S. had made no concessions to Putin.
Putin said his concern in Ukraine is that it lies on the Russian border with the U.S., NATO, U.K and other countries supplying lethal weapons. Putin wants a new security arrangement which offers some concessions for the amount of arms flowing into Ukraine. Biden and his 59-year-old Secretary of State Anton Blinken have told Putin there’s no room for concessions when it comes to Russian national security. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today that the Russian Federation doesn’t want war but won’t have its rights trampled on by the U.S. and NATO. Lavrov said Putin is digesting the U.S. and NATO response to his security demands but so far finds nothing in the U.S. response to show it’s serious dealing with the Ukraine crisis. Without a constructive response, Lavrov said the Russian Federation would reserve its right how to respond at a manner of its choosing.
Trump’s response to the Ukraine crisis doesn’t mention how Biden fueled the crisis by threatening Putin and the Russian Federation. Despite accused of cozying up to dictators, Trump never made any concessions to Putin, certainly not over Ukraine. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi impeached Trump after a so-called unnamed whistleblower can forward claiming that Trump tried to blackmail 43-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. While clearly not impeachable, Pelosi and House Democrats proceeded with impeachment over a nothing phone call in which Trump wanted to get information on Biden and his 50-year-old son Hunter’s wheeling-and-dealing in Ukraine. When it comes to the current Ukraine crisis, Democrats and Republicans can’t see that Putin has a right to security guarantees when NATO continuing to encroach on the Russian Federation.
Trump told Beck the Russian “owns” Germany because Merkel decided to move forward with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. But Germany has a right to buy natural gas from any foreign supplier that offers the best deal. “That means Russia controls them. Russia own Germany,” Trump told Beck. Whether that true or no, it’s Germany’s right to buy energy from whatever source it sees fit. “They’re getting their energy from Russia, so Russia has total control over Germany, and Germany’s saying, ‘oh well, we don’t want to fight them.’ They can’t fight them because of what’s happening with the energy,” Trump said. Trump may be right about Russia controlling Germany but that’s a German decision one way or another. No one knows what Putin will do in Ukraine. But if you apply any logic, there’s zero value to Putin invading Ukraine. Holding Crimea gives Putin all the security he needs..
