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Comment by jimbob45 | Hacker News Reader

In what way are you saying Germany is reluctant?

Germany has historically been very pro-Russia. Both as a form of peace work and because of scepticism towards the US. It has also been very pacifist, refusing to supply (also indirectly) any country involved in a war with arms - even Ukraine until Saturday. This war has changed everything about German foreign politics. Germany is now supplying an active war participant with weapons. It is increasing its military budget and buying drones. Energy security, including nuclear(!), is back on the agenda. In short, Russia's invasion has (temporarily?) ended pacifist rhetoric and policy in Germany.

Can't be 100% certain, but GP is probably referring to Germany's reliance on Russian natural gas. They get at least half of their natural gas from Russia. Due to this, Germany was dragging their feet on taking action, hence the reluctance. However, they snapped out of this once things really kicked off[0].

[0]: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germanys-scholz-halt...

They were blocking the SWIFT move and refused to allow weapons to pass through their country.

Much of the US media spent the 2 weeks up to the invasion excoriating the German government for being reluctant to commit to certain sanctions if Russia invades as well as offering scant military aid to Ukraine.

Germany has not exported weapons to countries in war since WWII. They still insisted to not to do so last week, only changed yesterday.

Germany is one of the biggest buyers of Russian energy. You could also say one of the biggest payers for Putin's war. Not their intention, but still a fact.

It's Germany and by extension EU's own fault for not developing alternative sources of energy. Note, I said alternative sources of energy not alternative fuels. How did Germany come to being so reliant on Russian energy? What were the Germans thinking when they were happily decommissioning their Nuclear and Coal power plants in favor of what was largely Russian Oil & Gas? Its not surprising that the west finds itself again in this situation.

Your intel is completely off: Germany had been exporting weapons to many countries, including Saudis bombing yemen, much to the embarrassment of its population

Of course German weapons have been used in various conflicts in various ways. Dual use stuff even more. I as a German did not like it and not vote for those who did it. It was kind of dirty industry politics to stretch the official policy of foreign politics. I have always said the official policy was dishonest. If you do not export to any crisis area, you should not export at all. You are not a credible vendor if you stop selling when the buyer wants it most. In all fairness it was rather limited compared to other weapon exporting nations.

The difference since Saturday is: You can hardly vote for any politician anymore that does not openly support exporting weapons into an ongoing war. It's a huge turn-around.

To continue on this topic:

Now everyone is applauding Germany that they finally started to change. Will they still applaud when Putin noticed that he underestimated the reactions of the EU and starts to play the nuclear option? First signs are in the air. He is isolated, he has been criminal since working for the KGB in the 1980s. And he has not been meeting many people for 2 years because he is paranoid about the virus. Or only realistic that in Russia the situation is less under control than in other industry countries. What 2 years of isolation have done to his mental health is anyone's guess. His declaration of war was a complete mess of hatress, he was not even able to state a clear reason from is own perspective.

Germany was reluctant about Nord Stream, reluctant on SWIFT, reluctant on providing military aid. They were reluctant the whole way through. They import a lot of Oil and sell a lot of 'stuff' to Putins Russia.

To be fair, being reluctant is not necessarily bad. Being reluctant because you might suffer a short-term economic hit is a bit less so.

Germany was planning on going ahead with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline before this affair started and has cancelled the project with legitimate misgivings. It gets a significant part of its energy needs from Russia and right now has no real substitute.

This has proven to reveal miscalculation on both sides. Germany thought interlinking its economy with Russia would cause Russia to behave. And Putin likely assumed that when push came to shove, Germany's energy reliance would prevent them from taking a stand against the invasion.

They took one more day to think about what to do than others.

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