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America ‘torpedoed’ Nord Stream 2 for its own interests – Saxony PM
US opposition to the controversial natural gas pipeline is purely selfish,
claims local politician
America ‘torpedoed’ Nord Stream 2 for its own interests – Saxony PM
© Stefan Sauer / picture alliance via Getty Images
The US has derailed the controversial natural gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 simply because of its own economic interests, and Germany must realize that it is dependent on Russian gas, the Prime Minister of Saxony said on Monday.
Speaking to German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Michael Kretschmer called criticism of the pipeline “wrong.” Kretschmer, who has led the German state since 2017, also serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and is a member of the German-Russian Friendship Group.
Nord Stream 2 was completed in September and now connects Russia to Germany without passing through any third country. This means that, once it starts operation, gas transit will become less reliant on third parties, thereby lowering the commodity’s price. It is yet to receive certification, however, leaving the pipeline dormant.
“What has preoccupied us all most in recent months is the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which has been torpedoed by the Americans for reasons of energy policy self-interest and is now also being criticized by individual parties in Germany,” Kretschmer said, noting that some senior members of the newly formed federal government, including from the Green Party, are opposed to its certification.
Washington has repeatedly sanctioned the pipeline, claiming that it threatens Europe’s “energy security.” Some have claimed the US is motivated by its own desire to sell liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the continent and is simply an economic calculation.
Gee, ya think?
“I believe this (attitude) is wrong. On the one hand, you have to see America’s economic interests and, on the other, that we are dependent on Russian gas,” Kretschmer continued.
Approval of the pipeline, which could have come this month, was suspended in mid-November after the German Federal Network Agency, the Bundesnetzagentur, insisted that Nord Stream 2 AG, the operator, create a German subsidiary. The German Energy Ministry described the suspension as a regulatory issue and an interim step, and the process will resume when the firm moves its base.
I wonder if Green Party leader, Annalena Baerbock, is being influenced by George Soros. Soros hates Russia and might very well be working in the background here.
Presidential hopeful says no to ‘politically correct propaganda’
in schools
French far-right figure Eric Zemmour wants to rid schools of ‘feminist, LGBT ideologies’
Eric Zemmour, who is running in the 2022 French presidential election, has vowed to stop the “brainwashing” of school students and focus on academic excellence instead.
“Over the past 40 years, our children have been indoctrinated,” Zemmour, an essayist and a political pundit, said on Monday.
“Schools can’t be a place where feminist, LGBT and decolonial ideologies brainwash our children.”
“There’s no prosperous nation without a school that transmits knowledge, and without a school that makes it possible to strive for excellence,” Zemmour said, promising to focus on teaching the French language and math in primary schools, and remove “politically correct propaganda” from textbooks.
He said school benefits should be suspended for parents of “seriously disruptive and truant” students, and children should return to wearing a smock in school as a “symbol of equality.”
“It’s a tragedy that since 1968 we’ve given up on civilizing generations of barbarians,” the candidate said.
Zemmour, who has been convicted of inciting hatred in the past, is a highly divisive figure in France.
He is known for making anti-migrant and anti-Islam comments, and is currently polling fourth in the election. Some of his campaign events have been met with protests.
The French will go to the polls in April.
I'm starting to like him!
There was no possibility of an agreement here. NATO is not interested in peace, it undermines the reason for their existence.
Russia & NATO fail to find common ground – Moscow
Discussions were ‘direct’ and ‘sincere’, but exposed fundamental differences in views
© Sputnik / Alexey Vitvitsky
The US-led NATO military bloc has reverted to full Cold War strategy of “containment” towards Russia and seeks “full spectrum dominance,” Moscow's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told reporters on Wednesday.
The diplomat added that Moscow believes NATO’s behavior is creating a “unacceptable” threat to Russia that it will have to counter.
Grushko also alleged that the bloc is responsible for ending any and all cooperation with Russia on key common security issues such as the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and piracy. He called out the US over the “collapse” of the arms control agreements, bringing up Washington’s exit from the INF and Open Skies treaties and dragging its feet on extending New START.
At present, we have no unifying positive agenda. None at all.
Russia has proposed de-escalation measures, but NATO has so far ignored them, the diplomat added. The bloc appears to recognize security as something that only applies to its members, in direct violation of numerous international treaties. Russia finds this unacceptable, Grushko said, adding that if NATO persists with the policy of containment, deterrence and intimidation, Moscow will respond in kind.
Earlier on Wednesday, NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters that the two sides had a “frank and open discussion on a wide range of issues, of course focusing on tensions in and around Ukraine.” However, Stoltenberg ruled out any deal on NATO’s further expansion, saying that “Russia does not have a veto” over that process and that “only Ukraine and 30 allies can decide when Ukraine becomes a member.”
Moscow is adamant that Ukraine and Georgia must “never, ever” become NATO members, according to Grushko’s colleague Sergey Ryabkov.
Ukraine ready for Donbass peace deal – Zelensky
President says it’s time to reach a solution to the long-running conflict
© Pierre Crom/Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that he is ready for the other Normandy Format members – France, Germany and Russia – to come to a new agreement regarding the ongoing conflict in his country’s Donbass region.
“We are prepared to come to a necessary solution during the new summit of the leaders of the four nations,” he said on Tuesday. Earlier that day, Zelensky had met in Kiev with advisors of the leaders of France and Germany, and had agreed to remain in close contact going forward.
The Normandy Format is the name given to talks between Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France, setup in 2014 for the purpose of resolving the war in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine. The conflicts started after the Western-backed Maidan earlier that year, which violently ousted former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.
Following these developments, separatists in eastern Ukraine established two self-declared breakaway republics. This led to a civil war after Kiev conducted an "anti-terrorist operation" in an attempt to retake control of the territories. As a result of the fighting, over 13,000 people have died to date, according to a UN estimate. Ukrainian authorities have accused Russia of controlling the rebels, which Moscow strongly denies, maintaining that it is not a party to the conflict.
In 2014 and 2015, a trilateral group made up of Ukraine, Russia, and the intergovernmental organization OSCE, signed the Minsk Protocol, which was designed to bring peace to the region.
However, the agreement failed to stop the fighting, and Moscow has accused Kiev of refusing to live up to its side of the bargain by declining to negotiate with the separatists, as required under the terms of the deal.
Nonetheless, the Normandy Format parties have indicated that they believe the Minsk agreements are still the basis for a possible future solution to the conflict.
In an interview published on Monday, Andrey Melnik, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, claimed that Berlin has a moral responsibility to provide weapons to Kiev, saying, “we have the right to self-defense.” However, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had previously insisted that “further military escalation will not bring Ukraine more security,” and said that her nation had no plans to sell large quantities of arms to the eastern European country.
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