Image by Kremlin.ru
German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Meseberg, Germany but the meeting produced ‘no agreements’ except an agreement to collude with Russia to get Russian cheap gas piped into Germany.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters no agreements were reached, but the meeting had simply been intended to “check the watches” after Merkel’s meeting with Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in May, reported Reuters.
The two leaders both viewed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project as a purely commercial venture, despite persistent fire by the U.S. and Ukrainian governments, Peskov said.
“That’s why it is necessary to take measures against possible non-competitive and illegal attacks from the third countries in order to complete this project eventually,” he told reporters shortly before Putin flew back to Russia. It was not immediately clear what such “measures” could entail.
Merkel has tried to save face saying that Ukrainian ‘transit fees’ should remain in place so that Germany doesn’t end up taking away a very important source of revenue for Ukraine in its bid to increase its reliance on Russian energy, all the while refusing to pay its share of NATO membership. Germany is said to have only a handful of combat aircraft that can actually fly, spending a relatively minuscule amount on its own defense. President Trump has pointed out the hypocrisy of the media accusing Trump of colluding with Russia and ignoring Germany’s actual actions to do so.
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Putin seemed to waffle on the subject of Ukrainian transit fees. “The main thing is that the Ukrainian transit – which is traditional for us – meets economic demands,” he said. “Nord Stream 2 is exclusively an economic project,” reported Reuters.
Merkel and Putin are meeting in Germany to discuss Ukraine, Syria, Nord Stream 2 and more. Here's what each said ahead of the talks: pic.twitter.com/H1OGhrZNDm
— dwnews (@dwnews) August 18, 2018
