From The Times (Londinium), February 9:
President Steinmeier of Germany has infuriated Ukraine by defending a Russian pipeline project with the argument that his country owed Moscow a debt of guilt for the atrocities of the Second World War.
The Nord Stream 2 pipelines beneath the Baltic are on the brink of completion despite protests from Kiev, Paris, Warsaw and Washington. When they are finished they will carry up to 55 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year from Russia to Germany and on into central Europe.
Opponents of the scheme argue that it will increase Europe’s reliance on Moscow for its energy security at a time when President Putin is intervening aggressively abroad and crushing dissent at home.
Ukraine also worries that it stands to lose some of the £1 billion or so it earns each year in “transit fees” from the pipelines channelling Russian gas through its territory.
Germany flirted with withdrawing its support for the project after the apparent assassination attempt on Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, last August.A Russian ship resumed laying the last sections of pipeline over the weekend after more than a year of delays through US sanctions and objections to the possible impact of the construction work on the Baltic’s wildlife.
Steinmeier, 65, who occupies a largely ceremonial post as Germany’s head of state, said Nord Stream 2 was important as one of the few remaining “bridges” between Europe and Russia.
He also argued that Germany was obliged to maintain cordial relations with Russia because of the millions of people in the Soviet Union who had lost their lives after Hitler invaded the USSR in 1941....*****.... Steinmeier has long worked to preserve Germany’s often frayed ties to Russia. His first senior position in German politics was as the chief of staff to Gerhard Schröder, the Social Democrat (SPD) chancellor who approved the original Nord Stream pipelines in 2005.
Since leaving office Schröder has made a lucrative second career in lobbying for Russian businesses, including the Nord Stream consortium and the energy companies Rosneft and Gazprom.....
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