In Germany, a new trick by the Kremlin has been unmasked and Merkel has also been hindered: acting against the interests of EU members

However, this trick was quickly misinterpreted. It is the smoke of the eyes, the primitive theater, and the German press, environmentalists and opposition politicians have spared no criticism.

January 7 The Mecklenburg-Vorpommern parliament approved, without lengthy deliberation, the proposal of the coalition government of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats to establish a “Climate and Environment Fund” (Stiftung Klima- und Umweltschutz MV). Why not? After all, Germany aspires to be at the forefront of the global fight to save the climate, so such a fund would be in the spirit of the age. Of course, if it really was what he preached.

Unfortunately, after opening the curtain on the environmental theater, Gazprom’s pipes and millions were seen. After all, the federal state, on the territory of which the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will reach the land, allocated only 200 thousand of its budget. 20 million euros. Euros were “donated” by Gazprom of Russia. In the future, this amount should increase to 60 million. – said the German journalists who had covered the background behind the scenes.

On January 6, even before the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern regional parliament blessed the establishment of the fund, the North German public broadcaster DDR publicly questioned the fund’s environmental objectives.

Environmental Fund – as a “building materials rack”

Soon articles revealing the “Fake-Umweltstiftung” appeared one after another.

Daniel Wetzel, editor-in-chief of Die Welt, who studied the foundation’s statutes, said: “After ten points and a lot of text on the ‘general improvement of the ecological situation’, the founders finally release the cat from the bag: it plans to “establish an economic unit, which aims to contribute to the continuation of the work of Nord Stream 2”.

It is planned to turn the fund into a kind of “building materials shelf”: to buy the materials and equipment necessary for the construction of the pipeline from the companies and transfer it to the company that will build Nord Stream 2, that is, to Gazprom itself. This bypass was expected to protect equipment sales companies from US sanctions.

“It is a fund with great potential. Whether in the future billions of investments will rust on the Baltic soil or even more Russian gas will flow into Western Europe, it may depend on your success. Because the US Sanctions Law is only for private companies, not public law firms, ”says Wetzel.

Recent reports on the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline indicate that 94 percent of the work has been completed. The missing road kilometers are indicated in the press in various ways: from 75 to 150.

A story of lies about the environment and transition technologies.

Presenting the fund’s objectives, Manuela Schwesig, the Social Democratic Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, argued that a second pipeline was absolutely necessary for the federal state, as “flexible gas-fired power plants, which could be quickly turned on as a necessary transitional technology in absence of wind and solar energy “.

Without Nord Stream 2 gas, it will not be possible to meet energy needs during the transition to renewable energy sources, the Prime Minister explained.

Clemens Wergin, author of the daily Die Welt, described the diversion as a “short story worthy of lies” and wondered why the German prime minister allowed himself to be so instrumentalized by the Kremlin as a “partner in increasing Russia’s influence in Western Europe. “.

Die Welt also recalled a current study by the German Institute for Economic Research, which found that Nord Stream 2 was unnecessarily energy efficient, harmful to the environment, and unprofitable from a business point of view. Finally, the gas pipeline conflicts with the objectives of German climate policy, as one of the authors of this study, Claudia Kemfert, correctly criticizes.

The second line of the Baltic Sea pipeline is no longer needed by Germany, but by the “Russian regime and its kleptocracy, which is throwing in large sums of money to consolidate its geostrategic interests by separating Ukraine and Poland from the pipeline network,” concludes Wergin.

The Greens are also blaming the federal government

A joint statement by the environmental organizations NABU (German Union for Conservation of Nature) and WWF (Partner of the World Wide Fund for Nature in Germany) criticized the cunning of the Mecklenburg-Pomerania government, emphasizing that the construction of the pipeline would damage the sensitive ecosystems of the Baltic Sea.

Furthermore, although burning gas emits less CO2 than burning coal, the methane from natural gas production is also very bad for the climate. “And since the gas from Nord Stream 2 will be extracted in the Arctic, in ecologically sensitive regions, the new environmental fund will only leave a headache,” the organizations said in a statement.

Green leader Annalena Baerbock joined critics of environmentalists on Tuesday. In the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung newspaper, he called for the new fund to be stopped: “The fact that the Russian-financed fund, whose sole purpose is to complete the pipeline under the guise of climate bailout, is simply outrageous. And not just in politics. climatic, but also in geostrategic terms ”.

“The Kremlin’s goal is to isolate Ukraine and Poland from gas transit. It is bad that the German federal government, despite criticism from many of Europe’s neighbors and the EU Parliament, continues to help in this,” the Green politician, who is running for chancellor, did not hide his discontent.

He doesn’t want to see Moscow seeking to divide the EU through the Gazporm project

And speaking on German radio Deutschlandfunk on Thursday morning, Count Alexander Lambsdorff, deputy head of the Bundestage’s Free Democratic Party (FDP) group, called the new fund a Gazprom fund rather than an environmental fund. And although, he said, 99 percent. the text of the fund’s statutes is dedicated to the environment, but 99% of the money comes directly from Gazprom. Gazprom can appoint both a fund manager and set its operating principles to be a disguised organization. “

The FDP politicians do not believe in the success of camouflage; Americans will not be impressed by such tricks. At the same time, he did not miss an opportunity to reprimand Chancellor Angela Merkel, who hails from the same state of Mecklenburg-Pomerania and “has long acted as if Gazprom were a purely economic company.”

“For many years now, the issue of Nord Stream 2 has been the subject of much debate, the Scandinavians, the Baltic countries, Poland and the Americans speaking out against the pipeline. In principle, we are completely isolated on this issue. And the people in Brussels who are talking about it say: “In principle, Germany is acting recklessly, unilaterally, against the interests and will of other EU members.”

The federal government keeps repeating its mantra

The German environmental organization Deutsche Umwelthilfe does not consider itself limited to criticism, it promises to take legal action against the new “environmental” fund.

The federal government did not comment on bailing out the Nord Stream 2 project from the new Mecklenburg-Pomerania fund. A government spokeswoman reiterated the statement that Nord Stream 2 is an “economic project” in response to questions from journalists at a press conference last Wednesday and did not compare the mantra again.

According to Die Welt, the first reaction from the United States suggests that the construction of the “climate fund” did not impress them. A spokesman for the US ambassador in Berlin, who was asked by the newspaper what Americans think about the new “climate fund” to complete the pipeline, replied: “Nord Stream 2 is not just a commercial project or an environmental initiative.” “