The Observer Network reported that on December 9, local time, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz publicly complained in an internal meeting that "Russia cut off natural gas**" caused an energy crisis in European countries, including Germany, and Berlin had to start the gas terminal reserve.
Of course, everyone knows that Scholz is "talking nonsense with his eyes open", if it were not for Germany following in the footsteps of the United States to cut off natural gas**, and then the United States conspired to blow up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Germany would not have fallen to the point where the chancellor deceived the people with cold jokes.
In December last year, the United States and the West jointly concocted the so-called "price limit order", and the energy ** between Russia and Europe was greatly reduced. At that time, Russia no longer planned to sell to Europe, and there were countries such as China and Turkey to cover it, and the effect of the blockade by the West was not optimistic.
But the European countries are miserable, after Russia does not sell, the first to obtain natural gas soared, and the United States is the most excessive. After buying natural gas from Russia at a low price, it was sold to Europe at a price 4 times higher than the market price, and European countries had to slap their faces and become fat, especially Germany, which had previously declared in a high-profile manner that it had "gotten rid of its dependence on Russian energy".
Now that the second winter has arrived, Scholz can no longer pretend and begins to pin the black pot on Russia's head, trying to absolve himself of responsibility.
Because the cost of obtaining energy has skyrocketed, the price of electricity and heating in Germany is also rising rapidly, and the worst is the German manufacturing industry, because the cost is too high, small and medium-sized enterprises have closed down, and large factories have also moved their industrial chains overseas. The United States has also shown its fangs and introduced the "Inflation Reduction Act", using high subsidies to attract European companies to build factories in the United States and drive American manufacturing. And Germany, the "bellwether", can only be forced to deindustrialize.
Even if the conflict between Russia and Ukraine ends next spring, Germany will inevitably fall into a permanent "economic and technical recession", and the hollowing out of industries in the future has become inevitable.
Merkel's 16-year hard work for Germany was completely defeated by Scholz in two years, and Germany will also become a second-rate country in Europe from the most powerful European economy.
This is not an empty description, but a conclusion backed by actual data. So far, Germany's GDP has declined for 3 consecutive quarters, and nearly 20,000 German companies will go bankrupt in 2023, 302% are in the manufacturing sector. International authorities**, Germany may be declared bankrupt in 2024.
In this case, Scholz is now accusing Putin of "cutting off Russian gas**" proves that Germany is unable to cope with the lack of domestic gas, and is also sending a "distress signal" to Putin.
In this regard, Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian leader and current deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, issued an angry criticism, "This German (Scholz) is talking nonsense with his eyes open!."They themselves rejected (Russian gas), they themselves entrapped their own people because they hated Russia, and now they are playing tricks and lying. ”
I have to say that there is nothing wrong with Medvedev's scolding, if he is really looking for a problem, Scholz will have to go to trouble with the United States, after all, if the Nord Stream pipeline is still there, Germany and Russia will be able to restore gas at any time**.
However, this time Putin's rare kindness, after Scholz sent a distress signal, on December 10, local time, Gazprom announced that it would continue to deliver natural gas to Europe through Ukraine, with a delivery volume of 42.1 million cubic meters on Saturday. In addition, Russia also uses Turkey as a transit to deliver natural gas to European countries to alleviate the energy crisis throughout Europe.
As for why Putin did this, the reason is just one word: money.
No matter how tight natural gas is, it has to be sold in order to be exchanged for money, so as to continue to achieve Russia's strategic goals in the battlefield of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Of course, it can't be as cheap as it used to be, and this is the price that European countries need to pay.
In addition, Russia's current delivery of natural gas to rescue the emergency can also further divide the differences between the United States and Europe on the issue of aid to Ukraine. Once European countries import heavily from Russia again, this means that the US plan to blockade Russia has completely failed, and there will be no suspense about the end of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Again, war is war, business is business. There is no absolute enemy in this world itself, and interests take precedence in everything.