Does nobody see the problem of the Germans cooperating with Russia's desire to be able to freeze Poles and other East Europeans without cutting off Germany's heating fuels shipments?
To understand why this undersea pipeline [from Russia to GErmany under the Baltic Sea], officially known as Nord Stream, is already called by some in Poland (including foreign minister Radek Sikorski) the “Molotov-Ribbentrop pipeline,” one must realize that its primary purpose is to serve the Kremlin as an instrument for political pressure. If economic considerations and demand for Russian gas in Western Europe had been the primary motivations, a second pipeline parallel to an existing one through Baltic and Polish territory could have been built more quickly and cheaply.Feel the love, Poland. Russia wants to be able to freeze you (and nuke you, given their opposition to our missile defenses in Poland, too) and Germany doesn't want to catch a chill if you find yourselves in the cross hairs of Moscow.
But such a pipeline would not have allowed Russia to turn off the gas to its Eastern neighbors while continuing to sell it to Germany and Western Europe, and thus would have denied the Kremlin the ability to blackmail the former, as it already has on several occasions in recent years.
Luckily, we'll be developing a large discovery of shale gas discovered in Poland.
Not that the Russians want to cut off anyone right now. After all, we'll still get our Manas air field. But Russia sure does want to have the option of squeezing supply lines should they need to.
Of course, did anyone in Berlin consider that when the Nord Stream pipeline is completed that Russia can cut off Germany's winter heating fuel without harming East Europeans? Funny how that works.
This pact will work as well as the last one, eh?
