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Anders Åslund Profile picture
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20 Jul, 8 tweets, 3 min read
This Politico article captures the absurdity of the Biden administration policy on Nord Stream 2. Biden is against it, but his staff want to get it done to the benefit of Putin & his German agents Schröder & Stasi agent Warnig against the EU & Ukraine.
politico.com/news/2021/07/2…
Nord Stream 2 is a Russian geopolitical project aiming at breaking up the EU, promoting corrupt revenues of Putin's friends, corrupting German & Austrian elites, damaging the EU market-oriented energy policy & undermining EU energy security.
atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-resea…
Biden used to be against Nord Stream 2, but now his administration has become the main ally of Putin & the corrupt elements in Germany to get it done. Why? Don't they understand or what...? has somebody already been bribed? Putin is so good at that.
The victims are the EU - only Germany, Austria, the Netherlands & Belgium favor Nord Stream 2. The others are either neutral or against. The Baltics, Poland & Romania lead the resistance. But Washington prefers Schröder & Warnig, Putin's paid agents. Why?
The Biden administration is doing this just after Putin on July 12 published his militant article ”On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians,“ which reads like a declaration of war on Ukraine. (Cf Hitler on Austria in 1938 & Poland in 1939)
en.kremlin.ru/events/preside…
Putin has a certain habit of starting wars in August (2008) and in the connection with Olympic Games (2008 and 2014). August has not arrive as yet. Admittedly, few have been appointed in the Biden administration as yet, but isn't there anybody who thinks?
The obvious conclusion is that @POTUS had better invite @ZelenskyyUa to Washington and tell him that Ukraine has full US support so that #Putin does not attack in august. Remember, Putin has hopeless Duma elections on September 19. Washington, wake up!
Let me add my Project Syndicate article on how to read Putin's war on Ukraine article.
project-syndicate.org/commentary/put…

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More from @anders_aslund

Anders Åslund Profile picture
22 Jul
Yesterday, the Biden administration tried to put an end to the Nord Stream 2 controversy. Did it? I doubt it. This appears to be itsa defining foreign policy mistake unless it changes it, as I still hope it will. Everything was wrong.
2. The essence of the German-US joint statement is that the US stopped its opposition to NS2, overruling two US sanctions laws, without getting anything in return, allowing itself to be defeated by Putin, Schröder & Warnig. Is this the US?!
auswaertiges-amt.de/en/newsroom/ne…
3. By not inviting the main parties concerned, Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic states, the US & Germany alienated them, notably Ukraine.
Read 8 tweets
Anders Åslund Profile picture
21 Jul
What the Biden administration should do on Russia/Ukraine/Nord Stream 2.
1. Follow the Interim National Security Strategy: "Russia remains determined to enhance its global influence and play a disruptive role on the world stage."
whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
2. Russia as a disruptive (possibly rogue) power does not obey international law as Putin proves all the time & it should not be expected to do so. US officials need to stop hoping for "Russia's good will" (even Blinken hope for that recently).
3. The general conclusion is that if you don't hit Putin hard between the eyes, you will not be taken seriously. In order to become serious in relation to Russia, the Biden administration has no choice but to sanction Nord Stream 2 fully as the Congress has LEGISLATED.
Read 13 tweets
Anders Åslund Profile picture
16 Jul
It was good that @POTUS & Chancellor Merkel spoke a lot about Ukraine in their press comments, but what they said was not reassuring.
whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/…
Biden: "I reiterated my concerns about Nord Stream 2, Chancellor Merkel and I are absolutely united in our conviction that Russia must not be allowed to use energy as a weapon to coerce or threaten its neighbors."
Good but how? This sounds like eyewash.
Merkel: "We will be actively acting should Russia not respect this right of Ukraine that it has as a transit country. So Nord Stream 2 is an additional project and certainly not a project to replace any kind of transit through Ukraine."
As empty as a threat gets.
Read 5 tweets
Anders Åslund Profile picture
15 Jul
Most interesting. Moskovsky Komsomolets' excellent pro-Kremlin foreign political observer Mikhail Rostovsky reads Putin's article on Ukraine just like me: "Putin issued the last ultimatum to Ukraine: 'Kiev does not need Donbass'."
mk.ru/politics/2021/…
As a Moscow insider, Rostovsky spells out what Putin really meant to those who did not understand.
1. Russia's policy on Ukraine has changed.
2. Russia will not accept what happens in Ukraine's domestic politics but engage.
3. "Russia was actually robbed" of territories.
4. Kiev does not need Donbass any longer. Who needs it? [Russia!]
5. Putin does not only talk about Donbass: Millions of people in Ukraine oppose the Ukrainian project "anti-Russia".
6. Naturally, Russia will defend these millions.
Read 7 tweets
Anders Åslund Profile picture
14 Jul
ABC in Russia policy for the new NSC team:
1. Nord Stream 2 is designed to split the EU & the West. With SPD in her coalition government, Angela Merkel is too weak to stop it. Then the US should help but fully sanction it, but it did not.
2. When Russia provokes, always stand up against it. The US was right to send in war ships into the Black Sea at the time of the Russia military mobilization around Ukraine in April & very wrong to stop their entry. The UK acted rightly.
3. When Russia provokes the West, never give it anything for free, such as a summit with the US president.
Read 8 tweets
Anders Åslund Profile picture
12 Jul
Putin is truly preoccupied with Ukraine. After his aggressive talk on his "direct line" on June 30, he has now published a 5,000-word article about the "historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians." Also available in Ukrainian, but so far not in English.
kremlin.ru/events/preside…
Putin's main argument is that Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians spoke one Russian language and belonged to one orthodox religion until 15th century. He prefers to call Ukraine "Malorossiya." He presents Novorossiya & the expansion of the Russian Empire as a popular movement.
Putin tries to seize the Ukrainian culture: Ukraine's national poet "Taras Shevchenko wrote poems in the Ukrainian language, but prose mainly in Russian. Nikolai Gogol's books, a patriot of Russia from Poltava, were written in the Russian language."
Read 6 tweets

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