Two visits – by the current and former chancellor – were the focus of media attention. Both trips were linked to the war Russia is waging against Ukraine and the energy crisis in Europe over Russian gas.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the day of the release of the scandalous interview of one of his predecessors Gerhard Schroeder, in which he blackmailed Europe by shutting off Russian gas, held an unusual photo session with a Siemens turbine for the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which demanded Gazprom to resume supplies. Korrespondent.net tells what it means.
How Scholz and Trudeau exposed Putin’s bluff
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz inspected the gas turbine for the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which has been repaired in Canada and has been in Germany since mid-July. On Wednesday, he visited the Siemens Energy plant in Mülheim an der Ruhr, where it is located.
With the absence of this turbine, the Kremlin motivated the reduction of gas supplies to Europe by up to 20 percent via Nord Stream. Germany persuaded Canada to violate sanctions in order to send a turbine to Gazprom, but they now say they will not be able to accept the part “under no circumstances”. Moscow says this is due to Western sanctions and documentation.
At the Siemens plant, Scholz said that there were no technical reasons for reducing Russian gas supplies, and that everything that Moscow puts forward as a justification for these measures cannot be explained by facts.
at @Siemens_Energy I could see with my own eyes: The serviced turbine is there and ready for use at any time. It only has to be requested from Russia. So there are no technical reasons to reduce gas supplies. pic.twitter.com/wu9Ys6OK7J
— Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (@Bundeskanzler) August 3, 2022
“Thanks to Justin Trudeau, we were able to expose Putin’s bluff. We never believed that he cut supplies precisely for technical reasons … Now that the turbine can be delivered, Russia is expected to fulfill contractual obligations. And if Moscow decides not to adhere to them, it will already be “It’s obvious to the whole world. Now this is already a well-known manual – Russia wanted to stop gas supplies and blame Western sanctions for this,” Scholz said.
He accused the Russian side of delaying the return of the gas turbine to Russia. Scholz explained that Moscow only needs to “provide the necessary customs information for transportation.” “There is no reason why this delivery cannot be made,” the Chancellor said.
The chancellor noted that Canada’s agreement to make an exception for this step is a strong signal of support for Germany and Europe as a whole, and it will play in favor of Ukraine’s long-term support. “How would the weakening of Germany and Europe help Ukraine?” the Chancellor asks.
Scholz also said he did not believe that Russia would agree to increase gas supplies to Europe through the Ukrainian gas transmission system.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has arrived to a Siemens factory in order to check up on the sanctioned Gazprom turbine Berlin managed to convince Canada send to Germany.
Russia has come up with excuses to slow the transfer of it from Germany to Russia.
pic.twitter.com/PRDq4PHO9M— Visegrad 24 (@visegrad24) August 3, 2022
At the same time, Scholz noted that Germany should prepare for further problems with the supply of Russian gas, even if the turbine is transported to Russia.
In turn, the head of Siemens Energy, Christian Bruch, pointed out that at present, one turbine is operating at the Nord Stream compressor station, five are needed for 100 percent load.
To transport the turbine located in Germany to the Russian Federation, only a corresponding application from Russian Gazprom is needed, he said, and also noted the absence of technical reasons for reducing gas supplies.
What did Scholz mean?
Having gone to Mülheim an der Ruhr, Scholz carried out a counter-propaganda mission, writes the German edition Die Welt. Together with the head of Siemens Energy, they wanted to “personally demonstrate that the turbine is ready for shipment and waiting in the wings – and thereby expose the Russian side, which has been resisting its acceptance for weeks, using all new pretexts.”
“Not only the economic prospects of the country, but also the political prospects of the chancellor” depend on whether Germany can adapt to what Scholz in Mülheim an der Ruhr called “Putin’s bluff,” writes the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
The chancellor’s message is addressed not so much to the Russian ruler as to ordinary Germans: look, it’s not about this turbine, which has undergone first-class maintenance.
“Just as little as the turbine itself, which Siemens says will be needed only in September, affects the reduction of gas supplies, so its installation has the effect of preventing Putin from inventing new excuses to reduce or even completely stop gas supplies,” says the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Russia claims it has reduced gas flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline because of maintenance delays to a turbine.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Moscow is using the alleged technical issues as a pretext, and that the turbine is actually ready to be shipped to Russia. pic.twitter.com/Rn4xZeeOQc
— DW Politics (@dw_politics) August 3, 2022
The usually not very temperamental chancellor showed such an ardent zeal to send a turbine to Russia that the satirists from Postillon published on behalf of Scholz, a message that he is ready to personally take the turbine to Russia, attaching it to his car. “We can’t take the turbine by sea to the port of St. Petersburg and just leave it on the shore,” Scholz said with regret at a press conference.
But the real reason why Russia refuses the turbine, on the same day, was voiced by the former German chancellor and an old friend of Vladimir Putin, Gerhard Schroeder. After a “vacation” in Moscow, Schroeder announced the need to launch Nord Stream 2, which Germany abandoned due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“When things get really tight, this pipeline is there, and with both Nord Stream gas pipelines, there will be no supply problems for German industry and German households. If you do not want to use Nord Stream 2, you will have to face the consequences. And they will be huge in Germany,” he said.
Schroeder brought other ideas from Moscow, for example, that the Kremlin is ready to end the war through diplomacy, and Ukraine should abandon Crimea and NATO, and indeed, federalize. About what the outrageous words of the former German chancellor mean in detail in the material Schroeder’s statements: what Putin really wants.
Residents of Germany for independence from Russia
The majority of Germans – 71 percent – believe that their country should become energy independent from Russia, and only 24 percent hold the opposite opinion. This is one of the results of a recent Deutschlandtrend sociological survey, published on Thursday.
Most supporters of the German Green Party – 95 percent – stand up for energy independence from the Russian Federation. Among the voters of the SPD, this proportion is 81 percent, in the camp of adherents of the CDU / CSU – 75 percent, among the supporters of the FDP – 73 percent.
Only those who vote for the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany have a different balance: only 32 percent of them consider achieving energy independence from Russia the right goal, while 64 percent believe the opposite.
In the west of Germany, energy independence from the Russian Federation is supported by a noticeably larger percentage of the population than in the east of the country – 76 percent versus 54. But in the country as a whole, supporters of this measure are in a confident majority, sociologists emphasize.
As for the sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation, 37 percent of Germans still consider them insufficient, although this proportion is decreasing – in June it was 41 percent.
34 percent think that the sanctions are now as much as they need (the supporters of this point of view have decreased by three percentage points), and 21 percent of the inhabitants of Germany are sure that the sanctions war has already gone too far (more by six percentage points).
Thus, after five months of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Germans cooled somewhat towards the idea of supporting the Ukrainians. However, most of them still remain committed to it, sociologists say.
News from Korrespondent.net in Telegram. Subscribe to our channel https://t.me/korrespondentnet
–
