Quote Originally Posted by JMA View Post
Ah the gas issue.

Perhaps now we can return to the earlier defence of Germany's strategic decision to place reliance on energy from Russia.

A massive strategic error. Who was responsible and whose heads should roll?

JMA, you cherrypick some aspects and simply ignore the the real factors that shaped some decisions:

1) Around 1990-95 there was a real danger that the Russian economy collapsed. The highest priority for Germany was, to stabilize the situation, NG pipelines and deeper integration of the Russian economy were obvious ideas and -in contrast to the NG discussion, finacial and technical support for pipeline construction around 1980- not really fought by the opposition.

The last thing Germany needed/needs at her backyard is a failed state with thousands of nukes. To assume one gets stability (clear advantage for Germany) without paying a price is naive.

2) Pipelines tie a producer to certain customers, the Russian side lose strategic freedom too. Russias economic situation improved because of rising crude prices (20 USD to 100 USD, nothing people assumed in 1995.

3) The real problems are in countries outside Germany: high demand for NG (for heating) in combination with very inefficient heating systems and low insulation level of the buildings.

4) And not unimportant. There was some kind of agreement that there is no integration of Ukraine into Nato and EU, this agreement was broken by western politicians, IMHO a stupid move.