While the Russian pipe-laying barge "Fortuna" is slowly pulling kilometers of the final stage of the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline (recall that a piece of pipe about 148 km of the pipeline remains unfinished out of the total length of its two lines of 2,460 km), the epicenter of the legal, economic and, as a result, in fact, the political confrontation is also gradually shifting.
And exactly where he should have been from the beginning: that is, to the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Which - just purely in fact - is both the natural end point of the gas pipeline route, and, what can I say, almost the main beneficiary of the entire large project.
What is it now, albeit forcedly and for some reason rather shyly, but at last the backbone German politicians have already started talking.
And this is, of course, not only about Gerhard Schroeder, who just completed this brilliant "parade of gratitude".
And the first on this topic - perhaps without much pleasure, but purely from office, thoroughly and point-by-point - was the FRG Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in the middle of last week.
He rather restrainedly noted that, despite all its ideological sympathy for the new American administration, Germany fundamentally does not intend to change its position not only on the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, but even on the inclusion of Georgia and Ukraine in NATO, what is so the new US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke decisively shortly before.
And it looked somehow completely radical, even against the background of about a week ago the speech of Frau Merkel, who called “inappropriate” only the extraterritorial sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline itself.
But somehow it was limited to this, without touching on the issues of the North Atlantic Alliance.
Nevertheless, let us note in memory this very entertaining "signal".
Naturally, the deputies of the Bundestag, who, by definition, on the eve of the upcoming elections to the German parliament and the new chancellor, respectively, seem to be happy to support any festival, except, of course, a hunger strike.
And since it seems that a national consensus has almost been reached about Nord Stream 2 in Germany - from which, however, the mainstream media and other greens fall out somewhat, but they no longer represent national forces for a long time, and there is nothing to judge by them - what the German deputies said for the most part is quite understandable.
“We will not give up our German Nord Stream 2 to any enemy - it sounded that way.
At least, as the head of the State Duma Committee on Energy Pavel Zavalny told reporters after a meeting with deputies of the German parliament, the solidarity position of all members of the Committee on Economics and Energy of the Bundestag headed by the chairman of the German Committee on Economics and Energy Klaus Ernst, who also participation in the meeting means that the new Russian-European gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 must be completed without fail.
Dot.
It was only after all this that Gerhard Schroeder summed up the essentially national attitude towards the gas pipeline under construction, and he did it very clearly.
Having indicated that Nord Stream 2, we quote: "must ensure the energy security of the next generations" of Germany - we have also written about this quite a lot.
And in about the same terms.
Including, by the way, and because right now, his country, the ex-chancellor of Germany recalled, is refusing from coal and nuclear energy.
This means that, in fact, "Russian gas" for it becomes in general fundamentally uncontested.
And no "green energy", as Biden calls the Germans to do, its industrially developed and successful Germany cannot be replaced.
Moreover, Gerhard Schroeder went even further, pointing out an even more important thing from the point of view of modern politics, in which the information component is very important: in fact, from his point of view, the attitude of the Germans not only to the “Russian” (in fact , this is not entirely true) to the gas project, but also to Russia and the Russians in general - much more loyal than the mainstream Western media portrays.
Anyway, we quote: "Attacks on Russia are not the opinion of the majority."
It is quite possible, by the way, that this is indeed the case.
And this is certainly commendable.
But we, as people of purely pragmatic nature, are much more curious about this story: why the opinion of the deep-seated German people, whatever it may be, has developed so rapidly, but the consensus position of the German elites.
Which, it would seem, have recently shone with openly anti-Russian rhetoric (suffice it to recall the recent "incident of a Berlin patient").
And so firmly in support of Nord Stream 2 and against the entry of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, the head of the German Foreign Ministry, Heiko Maas, almost brought even the fundamentally imperturbable Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov to white heat.
For which Sergei Viktorovich, being not only an imperturbable man, with the German minister, we are sure, will be counted more than once, but that is not the point.
Where such "changes in the general line" come from, with which the German elites should hesitate, that is the key question.
In fact, everything is, as always, simple.
And there is no need to complicate anything.
You can talk as much as you like about Biden's "vague position" and about the composure of Russia, which made it quite clear that it is no longer going to be "Europe more than the Europeans themselves" and, as before, to drag chestnuts for continental Europe from the flaring Anglo-American sanction fire.
Although both really add interesting nuances to the emerging picture, this is not the crux of the matter.
And the fact that, as we wrote earlier, Nord Stream 2 is not a “Russian” project, but an exclusively “European” project, in which Europe in general and Germany in particular are much more interested in the Russian Federation, both in terms of economics and and, most importantly, in terms of the continent's energy security.
What, in fact, Gerhard Schroeder spoke in absolutely direct text and with captivating frankness.
Well, well, let's say - not "exclusively European", but still, let's say, "European-Russian": European, primarily German markets for our energy carriers are indeed traditional.
And strategically, it would be quite good for us if the Germans with the economy were more or less good.
But also - no more, sorry.
But Germany, it seems, is beginning to realize quite clearly that at least for its energy and economic future, it will have to fight not with the Russians.
And no one hides this anymore.
Because the scenario role of the Russian Gazprom and the operator Nord Stream 2 AG, which is wholly owned by it, in this almost cinematic story is already more or less clear.
And, apparently, it consists in technically laying the pipe, giving European buyers technical access to Russian gas from Yamal and stepping aside.
Simply because further issues - legal, for example, support, sanctions pressure on a finished gas pipeline, and so on - according to European legislation, lie outside the sphere of our, Russian competence.
And what is most interesting, as it turns out, the Russians do not even need this "competence" - how would it be softer - in general.
And yes - this is, of course, not our economic war at all, but nevertheless we wish the Germans good luck here: there is nothing to hide, we are somewhere even interested in their success.
And Germany has every chance to insist on its own, it is not even discussed.
The cards, as they say, are good in their hands.
Let's watch kindly.
The author's point of view may not be the same as the editorial