Russia could ‘put foot on throat of Germany’ says expert
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The state Government of Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania turned down the motion to grant Ukraine with €20million (£17million) in humanitarian aid. The region would have housed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a 750mile-long Russian gas project that would have doubled Russia’s gas exports to Germany. But German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged not to certify the project last month over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine after facing international pressure.
But instead of setting aside money from the state budget to give to Ukraine as aid right now, the state Government will wait to designate the €20 million (£17million) that Nord Stream 2 had paid into a public foundation for the region.
The Social Democrat SPD, which is also Mr Scholz’s party, voted down the motion to hand over that money in the state’s budget for aid.
The far-left party, Die Linke, also voted down the motion.
The two parties cited legal and administrative barriers as reasons not to give Ukraine the aid.
The conservative CDU, who tabled the motion along with the Greens, and the Liberal FDP, were furious.
CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak reacted on Twitter: “A shame!”
He added that the two parties who rejected the motion “are refusing to use Russian lobbying money they got for humanitarian purposes”.
Russia had been pushing hard for months for Germany to speed up the certification of Nord Stream 2.
And back in October, German regulators suspended the pipelines approval, likely angering Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin had claimed that an operational Nord Stream 2 would have eased global energy prices in the midst of a crisis.
But critics claimed that Russia was deliberately slashing volumes of gas travelling through other networks to encourage Germany to speed up its certification.
The system has also been described as a “geopolitical weapon” by Ukraine.
Yuriy Vitrenko, CEO of Ukrainian energy giant Naftogaz, said back in September: ”What Russia is doing is the very intentional withholding of gas supplies to Europe.
“Moscow is withholding gas supplies in order to coerce Europe into accepting Nord Stream 2 and certifying it before the US Congress adopts additional sanctions.
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“Russia’s actions are the epitome of gas weaponization.”
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel originally stuck the deal for the pipeline with Putin.
She has come under fire for striking the deal as its critics claimed it would have made Europe even more dependent on Putin’s gas, which already gets 40 percent of gas imports from Russia.
Bill Browder, the CEO of Hermitage Capital, said: “Germany fears Russian gas retaliation if war breaks out.
“Maybe their leaders should have thought of that a decade ago and diversified when Russia started cutting off gas the first time. Instead the Germans built Nord Stream 2 to become even more dependent.”
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