Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Nord Stream 2 is already dividing Europe and giving Russia huge advantage


 Lately, we hear from our politicians about future problems that Nord Stream 2 (NS2) can cause inside the EU and NATO. They don't tell us, or maybe they don't know themself (a scary thought), is that NS2 has already divided the EU. 

Germany is not the only country pushing for the successful finish of this project on political and economic forums. Austria is the second one, and now we learn that the Netherlands is the third, although they did that total secrecy. Their government hid that even from their parliament. How dangerous that is for democracy, you can ask ... all three of them. 

All three of those countries engaged in media attacks against the countries' democratically elected governments in Central and Eastern Europe that stand to lose the most from NS2.

We just learned that since 2017, the Dutch government resumed diplomatic relations with Russia behind the scenes. According to Polish energy portal Energetyka24 and independent portal Follow the Money (FTM), high-level Dutch officials have traveled to Kremlin several times to discuss the Nord Stream II project.

After pro-Russian separatists shot down the Malaysian MH17 plane, which was traveled mostly by Dutch people, in 2014, the government in Hague froze diplomatic and trade relations with Russia. However, according to a journalistic investigation, it froze only for the outside world. Behind the scenes, ties were quickly re-tightened. According to the FTM, at stake was Russian gas.

FTM website reports that the Dutch government hid diplomatic trips to Moscow from the lower house of parliament. The meetings took place through the so-called Joint Working Group on Energy. On the Dutch side, it was attended by senior officials of the Ministry of Economy and Foreign Affairs.

Germany is attacking the Polish economy economically on the "third front" by applying pressure against building nuclear power plants. The country has already announced that they will try to stop EU financing of such projects. Last week, we also saw fake news about a dangerous nuclear leak in Lithuania from the nuclear power plant. Polish authorities have no illusions that it was aimed at Polish nuclear deals with the US. They just didn't say who they think was behind it.

Central and Eastern Europe fear that Russia will bypass the gas networks in Ukraine and Poland when building gas pipelines and that "these countries will become more susceptible to Russian whims." Moreover, countries fear that Russia will use the "pipeline policy" due to its more powerful energy sector position and will use energy supplies as a political weapon.