The main lesson of the North Stream. How to defeat Putin

Now that Russia, having rejected any false excuse, has openly stated that it would not resume gas supply to the EU until sanctions are abolished, it is important to learn vital lessons from the previous refusal of Europe to admit that the Kremlin is using the export of its energy for weapons. Video Day Agreement on Construction of the North Stream - 1 was signed on September 8, 2005. Gazprom and two German energy giants Wintershall and E.

on Ruhrgas signed a treaty in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The signing ceremony was postponed due to the approach of the parliamentary elections in Germany on September 18, which Schroeder lost. A few weeks later, Schroeder became a well-paid Chairman of the Nord Stream AG shareholders' committee (the Nord Stream, created to manage the gas pipeline) with the headquarters in the Swiss city of Tsug. He still occupies this position.

It was a flashy case of conflict of interest, although formally legitimate. Germany and other Western countries should now take steps to prevent any hint of repetition of such practice. Former leading politicians should face restrictions on work on foreign companies in any hypostasis. No event in the event should be allowed to work on a Russian state company. The north stream - and, at the right, was futile.

The EU has never imported more than 150 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia, and for a long time, pipeline capacities have been available to cover current volumes. The GTS of Ukraine can easily provide 120 billion cubic meters per year (even 160 billion cubic meters, according to the Ukrainian side). The Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, passing through Belarus and Poland, is steadily transported from billions of cubic meters every year.

No one needed neither the North Stream - 1 nor the same powerful north stream - 2. In recent years, Gazprom has also added a Turkish stream with an additional annual capacity of 31. 5 billion cubic meters to their portfolio of pipelines. In general, Gazprom planned to double his pipeline capacity to Europe, while Russian gas exports remained at the former level.

The real purpose of Russia's efforts to expand the pipeline network was to exclude Ukraine from transit countries and to prepare the ground for a full -scale military invasion, which was hindered by the Kremlin's dependence on the GTS of Ukraine. The North Stream - 1 was already a strategic mistake from the European point of view, and the north stream - 2 only intensified the problem: it was assumed that up to 75% of all Russian gas exports to Europe would pass through them.

Thus, the German government undermined Europe's energy security. Over the last decade or so, most European countries have built CPG terminals to get alternative deliveries and improve the situation with their national energy security, but not Germany. Instead, Berlin deepened its dependence on Russian gas and increased Putin's influence on the EU as a whole. The support of the North Stream by Germany - 2 has always been controversial.

On October 28, 2015, Vicecanzer and German Minister of Economics and Energy, Zigmar Gabriel met with Putin in the Kremlin and gave a high appreciation of the North Stream - 2, which, in the interests of Germany, described the pipeline as a "very interesting creek. " Gabriel, who, like Schroeder, is a member of the Social Democratic Party and is closely linked to the former chancellor, continued numerous meetings with Putin, promoting the north stream-2.

This German policy of strengthening bilateral energy ties with Russia. Berlin's position as a defender of EU interests. Traditionally, Germany was a key supporter of European solidarity and defender of the former Eastern Bloc of EU Member States in Central and Eastern Europe. Gabriel actually ignored the interests of other EU members to create a close Russian-German alliance, which Moscow was regarded as a tool for combating Europe.

He did this after Putin annexed Crimea and provoked a war in eastern Ukraine. Indeed, the North Stream Construction Agreement was signed when Germany participated in the Minsk mediation process between Russia and Ukraine. North Stream - 2 violated the principles of the 2009 EU Third Energy Package. He did not contain any of Gazprom's various activities.

Instead of worrying about these shortcomings, the German government and the companies involved in this process were actively engaged in lobbying in Brussels. As a result, Germany has distorted the EU's energy and antitrust policies, despite the resistance of most EU members. Today, the entire EU is suffering from the pro -Russian energy policy of Germany. Obviously, the European Union should form a new energy security strategy.

Currently, it is quite clear that the state Russia and Russian state -owned companies should no longer have the right to possess energy infrastructure or energy companies within the EU. Instead, Brussels should force Gazprom to sell all his pipelines in the EU, as the Baltic States have already done. In addition, Gazprom must sell its gas storage facilities in the EU, otherwise they will be nationalized. Similarly, Rosneft should be forced to sell its oil refineries in the EU.

The EU should ban Gazprom and Rosnafti business with European banks to avoid money laundering. The European Energy Union also requires strengthening by increasing storage, converters and alternative energy sources. After many years of hybrid energy hostilities against Europe, Putin first declared war. He needs to be defeated. The translation of HB has an exclusive right to translate and publish Anders Aslund columns. The full version of the text is forbidden.