Merkel to Putin: Bring Germany das gas

An interesting question following Angela Merkel’s victory in Germany’s general election is how much has Berlin’s Russia policy changed under her first term? Turns out, the answer is not much.

During his time as chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, through his close buddy-relationship with Vladimir Putin (a fluent German speaker from his KGB days in Dresden), consolidated German-Russian cooperation. The two countries are involved in a number of projects, including the construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which will transport Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany and Western Europe, avoiding irritating eastern EU neighbours. And Putin takes care of his own. The Russian leader rewarded Herr Schroeder soon after the latter left office in late 2005 with a big-paying job as supervisory chairman on the Nord Stream project.

Frau Merkel is also pressing ahead with Nord Stream,  realizing that Germany needs Russia’s energy. Moreover, German companies BASF/Wintershall Holding AG and E.ON Ruhrgas AG are part of the Nord Stream AG consortium. E.ON and BASF are also taking stakes in the major Siberian Yuzhno-Russkoe gas field, which is a large source of natural gas for Nord Stream. E.ON’s CEO Wulf Bernotat is a member of Gazprom’s board of directors, as the company holds a 6.5% stake in the gas giant. Bernotat was among a group of foreign energy bosses addressed by Putin on 24 September in the town of Salekhard on Russia’s Yamal peninsula. Putin called on the international companies to invest in gas production in the region.

A pragmatic politician, Merkel is pursuing the same Russia policy with President Dmitry Medvedev as Schroeder did with Putin. “A lot of experts thought that there would be more cold relations if we compared them, of course, with the time of Mr. Schroeder, but now see that Merkel doesn’t want to struggle with Russia. She is a supporter of Nord Stream and I think German companies like E.ON and BASF explained to Merkel that it can be a serious mistake to struggle with Russia,” Konstantin Simonov, director of the independent National Energy Security Fund in Moscow, told New Europe on 1 October. “It is a big business not only for Russia but German companies also. Germany will be a serious distributor of Russian gas in Europe,” he said, adding that Russia’s energy relations with Germany, Italy and France are excellent.

Basically, Germany is Russia’s closest ally inside Europe – to the point of defending Moscow from attacks by the new EU members of eastern Europe. “We have three different ‘Europes’ inside Europe,” Simonov said. These are Brussels and the Euro-bureaucracy; post-Soviet countries and former satellites of Europe; and the so-called old Europe led by Germany, Italy and France. “With Brussels and this so-called New Europe Russia has very difficult relations because of the history and the view of European bureaucracy.”  The Russian analyst minced no words, criticising the European Commission’s policy of trying to lessen its energy dependence on Russia. “[European Commission President Jose Manuel] Barroso is absolutely sure that Russia is an enemy and it is impossible to change his mind,” Simonov said. “But our relations and energy relations with old Europe are usually very, very good and even after the gas war with Ukraine there was no real change in relations.”

Kostis Geropoulos

Source: New Europe, October 04, 2009