> The latter is very difficult for Europe in winter
The latter is very difficult for Germany in winter.
Let's call a spade a spade and stop bundling the EU27 with Germany's energy policy and geo-political failures.
The latter is very difficult for Germany in winter.
Let's call a spade a spade and stop bundling the EU27 with Germany's energy policy and geo-political failures.
I get it, from Spain it looks very different, but this list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_in_the_European_energy_... shows how many countries depend on Russian gas.
This should have been scary to Europe for at least a decade now, but sadly wasn't.
In fact, a lot of Europeans would like to see peace made with Russia. A Europe united with Russia would be the one superpower even China could do little to contain ..
Its certainly not going to be possible for as long as member citizens of Western nations think they have the moral authority to tell Russia what to do .. they really, really don't have that moral authority, especially given the last twenty years of massacring of innocent people that the West continues to sweep under the rug and justify with bleats ..
The Russian people know how many innocent human beings are massacred by American war machines every day, even if Americans don't.
Anything less is just a failure to understand basic ethics. You can call anything a fallacy - the idea that Americans have a higher moral authority on the subject of human rights is just ludicrous and worthy of a great deal of ridicule in light of the statistics of "Americans killing other innocent people for fundamentally racist/bigoted reasons" .. the real fallacy is that the American people think their nation has a 'right' to act with moral authority over any other nation. They really, really don't.
So? Which 'side' you pick is mostly a matter of national identity and how your personal views on world peace align with the military industrial complex of your own personal nation state. A lot of Europe is really sick of America's shit and want them to leave, too.
I suggest you ask your relatives how they feel about NATO encroaching further and further towards Russias' borders, and what do they think about the recent NATO exercise that flew armed nuclear missiles within 20km's of Russias borders. If the tables were turned, Americans would be having kittens - but somehow, Russians are supposed to take these threats lightly?
NATO is a defensive alliance. A country can join or leave NATO alliance. Nobody forces a country to join alliance. The higher threat RF creates for others, the more other countries are wanting to join an alliance to get protection from RF threats.
I highly suspect that your colleagues in Slovakia are invented.
NATO is the threat that Russia is responding to by buffering its borders and protecting its nuclear-armed naval base on Crimea. Its not Russia putting American bombs within strike distance - its the USA and its criminal NATO partners.
There are two major parties in Germany who oppose NATO membership: The far-right AfD and the left to far-left Linke. They have less than 20% of the national vote together. In 2019 there were 54% of Germans in favor of the NATO membership and 13% opposed it. [1]
Can't talk for the other countries, but given that you have no sources other than "I heard someone say that", I'm not inclined to believe it.
[1] https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/r/52/YouGov%20Eurotrac...
From outside the American media bubble, it is quite clear to see which nation is committing the majority of crimes against humanity and war crimes today, and they don't speak Russian. They commit these crimes like cowards, hiding in Arizona strip malls, remotely controlling their death robots and raining hell and fury down on utterly innocent people, every single day. Germans know this and care. Americans either don't know about it, or don't care - or both.
Places like Poland and Slovakia are similar only somewhat less so.
These are just not vocal enough to warrant attention in Western media, nor does it serve the purpose of giving the American-led NATO powers a new purpose for existence.
You don't know "a lot of Ukraine and Georgian expats." I have family from both and have been all over Georgia. 2012 Gallup Poll had Georgian approval of US policies at 51% and disapproval at 15%. There's a damn good reason Georgia and Ukraine mutually consider each other their #1 ally.
I thought after the 2014 annexation of Crimea, surely international supporters of this crap would be nowhere to be seen anymore. Now I found myself thinking the same thing when Ukraine or the Baltics boil over, but I'm sure somehow you'll make up some other "But US and NATO (a defense pact that has never entered into unrequested territory) also yada yada, Russia not so bad."
I can count the # of pro-NATO/pro-USA bootlickers in my professional circles on one hand, whereas the people who are categorically opposed to America's continued committing of crimes against humanity cannot be so simply counted. You seem to be aligned with the "might makes right" theory of geopolitics, but this is not the case among the people of the states I'm familiar with. Most of them want the criminal human rights violations to end - on all sides - but are not so stupid to ignore the American side, just because its shiny and plastic.
And you said the Ukrainian and Georgian expats were here in Austria. I'll leave it to others to decide if you're telling the truth.
> You seem to be aligned with the "might makes right" theory of geopolitics.
Actually I was explicitly saying that Russia annexing Ukraine (might) isn't right. ???
>Russia annexing Ukraine (might) isn't right. ???
Well, that depends if you think fascist Ukraine should have access to ex-Russian nuclear-armed naval bases or not. I personally would rather have Russia have control over the significant population of Russians in Crimea than have fascist Ukraine gain access to those nukes.
But, we peons rarely get what we want. I guess we should learn to wield our democratic power better ..
I know a lot of Ukrainians. They absolutely hate Russia.
Russia tries to invade their country, US isn't. Don't you think that makes a difference?
My family in law is from Slovakia. Needless to say, especially the older generation really hates Russia.
Do you have any idea what Russia did to Ukraine, or Slovakia or any of the other ex soviets satellite states? Don't you think that would leave any marks?
I don't think Americans hate Russians at all, in my experience. Just Putin and a handful of oligarchs.
> probably because they've actually got Russians visiting and know that Russia doesn't really represent the threat that the American military-industrial complex needs you to believe is real in order to justify their trillion dollar misadventures and further subjugation of NATO member states into puppetry.
Some of these Russians just happen to carry Novichok or polonium and assassinate dissidents living in Europe, no big deal right?
> In fact, a lot of Europeans would like to see peace made with Russia. A Europe united with Russia would be the one superpower even China could do little to contain ..
This is a glorious fantasy
Whereas every single American tourist can be trusted not to be a gullible fool and just believe everything they've been told to think about Russia by talking heads on the television? Come on, we know that all states assassinate their enemies, including the USA. This standard is no longer relevant.
In Western democracies we don't assassinate our dissidents, we simply throw them in a dark room for a few decades and throw away the key, like we are doing with Assange, and would have done with Snowden if someone like Putin wasn't around to put the smug hypocrisy, propaganda, and corruption on public display.
> Europeans don't hate Russians as much as Americans do -
I seriously doubt Americans really hates Russia, and at least not more than any eastern country who has been crushed by USSR for some decades.
> probably because they've actually got Russians visiting and know that Russia doesn't really represent the threat that the American military-industrial complex needs you to believe is real in order to justify their trillion dollar misadventures and further subjugation of NATO member states into puppetry.
Seriously, again. We want peace with Russia, but don't pretend it is the West who creates this situation.
> In fact, a lot of Europeans would like to see peace made with Russia.
Yep, but hopefully we remember what happened how much we got out of Britains deal with Hitler. A deal with Russia must always be backed by power.
> A Europe united with Russia would be the one superpower even China could do little to contain ..
The only advantage China really has on us is ruthlessness.
It is the West that creates this situation:
https://www.geoawesomeness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Ri...
>Britains deal with Hitler. A deal with Russia
These are not equivalent by any stretch. Putin is not Hitler.
What am I supposed to read out of this that supports your argument?
> These are not equivalent by any stretch. Putin is not Hitler.
Absolutely true.
Sadly it seems that one similarity is that both of them - and others as well - didn't/doesn't respect treaties, agreements or what I think of as basic expectations of decency.
For this reason I voice my clear support for Nato - as long as we don't overstep our boundaries like we did in Afghanistan. This includes sending troops to the borders og our friends in the alliance. As long as they don't cross the border this is fair game.
Russias problem isn't only that they exercise on the Ukrainian border, but also that they have a history of:
- sending advanced gear to troublemakers in east Ukraine who choose violence over democratic participation.
- sending troops.
- has a history of not only meddling like USA (I don't like this either) but also occupying.
Which country is having its territorial sovereignty threatened by the encroachment of hostile states strategically positioning nuclear weapons within strike distance? Which country actually belongs in the region, and which are setting up remote bases from which to operate, far, far from home?
If you don't think NATO aggression is a reality that Russia must deal with, there's not much point in further discussion. Only one side in this argument has a long history of committing war crimes and further crimes against humanity, for the last twenty years ..
>doesn't respect treaties, agreements
This is the biggest problem that Russia has with NATO and its puppet states: they don't respect treaties or agreements. Lets next discuss the Minsk Protocol and what Ukraine has done to render its participation utterly useless and not worthy of any respect, whatsoever ...
>NATO .. don't overstep our boundaries
That horse has left the barn, long ago. It is very clear to those of us that live in the region that NATO is willing to step all over the sovereignty of other nations in an attempt to encircle Russia. Your trust in NATO is clearly either a) uninformed, or b) utterly misguided.
>Exercise on the Ukrainian border
.. on the RUSSIAN side of the border. Nothing at all wrong with that, one bit.
> sending advanced gear to troublemakers
ahem It is the USA actively arming Ukrainian fascists, yo.
> meddling like USA > also occupying
Not at anywhere near the scale of the USA, sir. And if you think this is equivalent, then good day to you - we have nothing else to discuss.
The USA is the #1 violator of human rights and committer of war crimes in the world today. Your attention would be better directed towards the calls for justice for America's war crimes victims and the imprisonment of its numerous war criminals.
Only then can the West find the moral authority to do anything about Russia's perceived acts.
Until then, these arguments are specious at best, or facetious in whole.
Poland and Finland also have LNG terminals with more of them being planned in other European countries. Germany, on the other hand, is still very much on the Russian gas needle.
The fact that one country can shift a marginal gas use from one seller to another doesn't mean, for example, that you could find enough gas in the free market to suddenly prop up 40% of European winter needs.
I think there's a lot that could be done here, but it would require coordination and a united front. Oddly, I feel both these things are in place.
German gas consumption per capita is not much different than most of the EU27 except France (nuclear) and Spain/southern Italy (it doesn't get cold enough to need much heating). All the EU east of Germany imports more of their gas from Russia as a percentage; and the ones to the west of it only don't because the pipes from Norway or Morocco are shorter.
So no, not just a German problem, your electricity cost have gone up too I bet.