" During her recent visit to Washington, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel was at pains to convince her United States host President Joe Biden that Germany was determined to finish the Nord Stream 2 project with Russia. The scheme is seen by the Germans as vital to Germany’s future economic well-being. It was simply nonnegotiable. In all the plethora that the Russians are literally holding Germany to ransom over the pipeline, the fact that it was a German initiative is simply overlooked."
" Following her meeting with Biden, Merkel declared that Russia had to maintain its contract with Ukraine to continue using Ukrainian territory for the transit of Russian gas. This is a contract that is currently worth about $3 billion per year to Ukraine. Quite where the German Chancellor thought her authority came from to demand that the Russians continue to use Ukraine for transit purposes is unclear."
" Russia has vowed to continue the existing contract until its expiry which is scheduled for 2024. This is a major concession by Russia to Ukraine, which continues its anti-Russian program on all levels. They recently forbade the use of the Russian language in its territory, which adversely affects the first language of approximately one third of its population. Quite what they hope to achieve by this policy is unclear. It will certainly not endear themselves to the people of the Donbas region, with whom Ukraine remains in a state of armed conflict."
...........https://journal-neo.org/2021/07/26/r...better-future/
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