To put a finer point on the very wise comment by Amb. @RugeBoris: Russian crude oil trades freely on global markets, and these exports account for a staggeringly large percentage of revenues for the Russian state budget and the rents that keep the Putin regime afloat. 1/X
Gas pipelines like Nord Stream 2 are not money-makers for the Kremlin in the traditional sense. Make no mistake: Nord Stream 2 is a stinker of a project: the geopolitics and geoeconomics are exactly wrong. 2/X
German leadership and credibility have taken a big hit as a result. But German and Russian parastatals, utilities, and energy companies have been pursuing cozy projects like this since the 1960s. They resist EU scrutiny/oversight because these relationships are anti-market 3/X
The thing I dislike the most about Nord Stream 2 is that it will line the pockets of the most corrupt sector in Russia and a system of sub-contractors who are at the core of the Putin system. 4/X
But we shouldn't fool ourselves that trying to torpedo a project that's approx. 95% complete is more important that patching up the US-German relationship that is absolutely crucial for managing the Russian threat 5/X
The Trump administration has done breathtaking amounts of damage to the US-German relationship, incl by hyping the very real problems posed by Nord Stream 2. Only one person benefits from destroying our relationship with Germany. His last name starts with the letter "P". END
