"Germany is totally controlled by Russia"

Donald Trump did not wait for the official start of the NATO summit to adjust his accounts with Angela Merkel. He accused Germany of "being totally controlled by Russia" through massive imports of gas from Siberia. Berlin would thus participate in the military consolidation of Moscow, considered as the number one rival of NATO.

Germany is the "prisoner" of the Kremlin because it buys "much of" energy produced in Russia, he said Wednesday at a breakfast with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg The Germany of Russia, while the first pays billions to the second and thus helps to enrich (…) This n is not normal. "

Stoltenberg was completely taken aback by Trump's diatribe, who turned a banal photo shoot around a cup of tea into an incendiary press event. The leader of the White House thus manages to deepen the crack among Europeans on the subject of supplying Russian gas and at the same time wash the effects of the allegations of his complicity with Putin, especially in the election Presidential election in 2016. Trump and Putin will meet in Helsinki on July 16th.

Angela Merkel is the perfect target. Germany takes advantage of the US military umbrella but challenges the commitment of all NATO members during George W. Bush's term and renewed during the allocation of 2% of Barack's GDP Obama for the defense. Germany also contributes to its exports to the huge trade deficit of the United States with the European Union and exceeds 150 billion dollars.

Gas, Putin's geostrategic weapon

To Washington's discontent, Trump adds Berlin's energy dependence on Moscow. The stake is obviously the North Stream 2 pipeline, of a length of 1225 kilometers, which should be inaugurated in 2019, which will almost double the capacity of a first gas pipeline, operational since 2012. Both pipelines will deliver 110 billion cubic meters of gas Russian, which accounts for half of the consumption of the German economy.

The EU (practically headed by Germany) took care that, unlike oil, the gas was not under the influence of the sanctions dictated four years ago after the first one. annexation of Crimea. The investment, of about 10 million euros, responds to rising German and European demand, as gas production in Norway, the Netherlands and the UK is declining rapidly. North Stream 2 includes German (Uniper and Wintershall), Austrian (OMV), Anglo-Dutch (Shell) and French (engie) companies.

And of course Russia through Gazprom. The chairman of the administration of Nord Stream 2 is none other than the former German Chancellor Gerhard Shröder, a close friend of Vladimir Putin. He was proposed to this post by Gazprom. Shröder, is also the director of the Russian oil colony Rosneft.