Even Lukashenko’s piracy can’t derail Nord Stream 2 – and Putin knows it
Germany will pay a heavy geopolitical price for its addiction to Russian gas, but it doesn’t seem to care…
Germany has always had a bit of a soft spot for Russia’s brooding presence, a bizarre affection which goes well beyond the abiding historical connection of East Germany’s decades long membership of the Soviet bloc. Other than perhaps Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, Germany is closer to Russia than any other member of the EU. They even have a word for it - Russlandversteher, suggesting a greater empathy for and understanding of Russia’s position in the world than almost anyone else.
Putin speaks fluent German, and Angela Merkel, as a stalwart of former East Germany, is similarly fluent in Russian. There is moreover a lot of trade between the two; many of Germany’s leading companies have major investments in Russia. Most of us would think making yourself dependent on Russian gas as tantamount to supping with the devil - worse, in some respects, than reliance on Huawei for 5G mobile phone networks - but for many Germans it is not such a big thing…
The Belarus hijacking has been a rude awakening - a salutary reminder of the sort of regimes the Germans are bedding down with, regimes that care not a fig for the rules-based international order that Germany claims to champion.
Perfidious Albion finds itself widely condemned within the EU as an untrustworthy partner for threatening to renege on the wholly unworkable Irish Protocol, yet Germany thinks nothing of breaking bread with a murderous thug whose staunch ally thinks it perfectly acceptable to use deception and force to invade supposedly neutral skies so as to arrest and seemingly beat up political opponents.