German Chancellor Angel Merkel, 66, a key player in the European Union, sent a loud message to 78-year-old U.S. President Joe Biden that she will move full steam ahead on completing the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline with Russia. While Merkel has sympathy for 44-year-old jailed Russian dissident Alexi Navalny, it won’t impact her relationship with the Russian Federation. Merkel pointed out that Germany has been buying natural gas and petroleum since post WW II days when the Soviet Union supplied German vital resources to rebuild the war-torn country. Biden came to power Jan. 20 like gangbusters going after 68-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying the U.S. would no longer be “rolling over” like 74-year-old former President Donald Trump. Trump never “rolled over “ for anyone, just wanted a chance to improve the abysmal relations with Russian left by 59-year-old former President Barack Obama.
Obama took the unusual step three weeks before Trump’s inauguration to expel 35 Russian diplomats Dec. 31, 2016. Biden apparently has picked up where Obama lseft off Jan. 20, 2017, alienating Putin and the Russian Federation. Biden’s 58-yar-old newly minted Secretary of State Tony Blinken practically jumped up and down telling Putin to release Navalny and other Russian dissidents. Threatening more sanctions and telling Putin what to do with an internal Russian affair doesn’t play well with Putin or the Kremlin. Biden forgets he had a chance to put his foot down with Putin March 1, 2014 when Russian invaded and annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, home to Russia’s warm-water fleet in Sevastopol. Obama and Biden could have acted more forcefully but chose to do nothing. Suddenly Biden’s the tough old rooster on the block, hurling insults and warnings at Putin.
Biden and Blinken have slammed Trump’s “America First” foreign policy, pledging, like Obama, to fall in line with the European Union [EU]. Merkel’s decision to move forward with competing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea serves notice that she intends to continue doing business with the Russian Federation. Whatever sanctions Biden or Blinken contemplate for Putin’s actions with Navalny, election-year-influence or hacking secure computers systems, etc., Merkel plans to meet her contractual obligations with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Biden and Blinken counted on the EU to lend clout to U.S. actions against Putin. Biden and Blinken want Germany to buy liquefied natural gas from the U.S., where it’s in abundant supply with the fracking industry. Merkel rejects the idea that Germany and the EU have grown increasingly dependent on Moscow for energy.
When it comes to energy, the Russian Federation supplies 40% of EU’s natural gas and 30% of its petroleum. Biden and Blinken won’t get Merkel to renege on her commitment to the Kremlin for energy supplies. Merkel said she wouldn’t allow Germany to be “unilaterally dependent” on Russian energy, knowing that Russia has supplied German energy for over 70 years. Alienating Putin hurts U.S. national security at a time when the State Department needs the linkage with Moscow to face growing challenges in the Middle East, North Africa, North Korea and Iran. Acting aggressively toward Putin won’t build the global linkages needed to solve evolving crises around the globe, especially on the Russia-Ukraine border when pro-Russian separatists seek to split off the Donbass region. Yet Biden and Blinken have already alienated Putin to point he would do nothing to help the U.S.
Merkel understands perfectly well that the U.S. has a beef with Putin over a variety of pressing issues, like alleged recent hacking of SolarWinds network management software used by numerous government agencies, including Homeland Security and the Pentagon. But Merkel is no fool when it comes to Germany. She’s all in when it comes to the Paris climate accord but knows that Germany’s transition from fossil fuels will take time. When it comes to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Merkel secures low cost natural gas to heat German hopes in the cold winter. “It’s clear that this is a controversial project that is being discussed in Europe,” Merkel said, knowing that 43-year-old French President Emmanuel Macron wants to sanction Putin for his repressive treatment of Navalny and use of banned chemicals to poison his enemies. Putin has denied using Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent to poison Navalny.
Biden and Blinken think they’re talking tough with Putin, trying to contrast their firmness with Putin to that of Trump. But Trump did everything possible to improve U.S.-Russian relations only to watch it sabotaged by Democrats and the U.S. press. Democrats and the press accused Trump for four years of inappropriate ties to the Kremlin, baseless accusations made by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton with her paid opposition research AKA “the Steele dossier,” a pile of rubbish given to the CIA and FBI by Obama and Biden. Biden and Blinken won’t get the cooperation they think to start applying more pressure on Putin, not when the EU buys 40% of its natural gas and 30% of its petroleum from Russia. “I had questions at the beginning, we coordinated, a decision has been made and I’m in fully solidarity,” Macron said, letting Biden and Blinken know where things stand.
