At the very end of last week (and, by the way, as the authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany have been especially fond of lately, just before the weekend), news was finally spread across the EU media space, both expected and explosive: there were too many forces spent to prevent this from happening.
But it happened: the official position of the German authorities on the still under construction Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was nevertheless announced and published.
In general, let's say right away - nothing sensational happened.
It's just that, as the deputy official representative of the FRG government Martina Fitz said at a briefing in Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's assessment of the Nord Stream 2 project, despite everything, including the story that happened in the last month of last summer with the Russian “opposition blogger” Alexei Navalny, remains unchanged.
Accordingly, all stakeholders need to believe that, from the point of view of the official authorities of the Federal Republic, Nord Stream 2 is still, as expected, an exclusively commercial and therefore politically and bureaucratically absolutely inviolable project.
There is no need to even invent anything, just quote Ms. Fitz herself: “I cannot inform you today about any changes or a new state of affairs in this regard.
We have spoken out here on this topic many times and comprehensively, ”said the deputy official representative of the German government, answering a question from journalists about Merkel's position on Nord Stream 2.
Actually, which is to be expected.
Well, so that there really were no doubts at all on this issue, Fitz also added that between Merkel and the ministers of her government, in particular, the head of the Ministry of Finance Olaf Scholz and the head of the Ministry of Economics Peter Altmaier, in general, "there are no disagreements" on the issue of the European -Russian gas pipeline.
At the same time, we remind the dear reader that literally a little earlier, as on purpose, both ministers unequivocally and categorically spoke out against the termination of the construction of Nord Stream 2 due to the situation around the "poisoning" of an outstanding in all respects representative of the Russian, either non-systemic or pseudo-systemic , or even some unknown, from the point of view of the German pragmatists, opposition.
By the way, it should be noted here that Altmeier was somehow especially categorical on this issue: “It is problematic to question projects that have been laid down for many decades every two months,” said the German Minister of Economy, expressing, as it turned out later, the official position the entire German government.
And on my own behalf, he added that sanctions against Russia somehow too often affect primarily business relations and the interests of, for some reason, German and other serious European companies.
Moreover, according to him, with such an approach, the trust, primarily of private investors, who are a kind of sacred cow of the modern model of "free" economy, will be significantly undermined.
And if this happens in the very egregious story of the current state of affairs around Nord Stream 2, then, according to Altmaier, these sacred “private investors” will certainly no longer be ready to participate in such projects that Europe needs.
Patronized, including by the economic authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Well, the minister, who, apparently, voiced an ultimatum from big business, seems to have been heard by his own political leadership: recall that a government official cannot speak “on his own behalf” and expresses precisely the official position of the government.
And on this, probably, one could put an end to it, but one question arises.
Does what happened mean that the situation that has developed recently around the completion of the construction of Nord Stream 2 is finally, to everyone's European-Russian satisfaction, at least more or less resolved?
Of course not.
Firstly, in the shaky modern world, any words, and even more so, as they say, signals from European politicians are stupidly worth little: we recall that quite still, it would seem, another prominent representative of the Merkel cabinet, minister Foreign Affairs of Germany Heiko Maas.
Who literally a day before Martina Fitz's "explanations" stated on the ZDF air that the German authorities were "considering all options" and made it clear that the fate of Nord Stream 2 depends precisely on Russia's reaction to the "incident with Alexei Navalny" and on her "role in the investigation."
Which, in fact, the Russian authorities, in turn, apparently frankly infuriated.
Well, now, after the actual disavowal of these words of the Minister of Foreign Affairs by the official representative of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is not even very clear that what is happening looks at least somehow not so funny.
Secondly, apparently, little depends on European politicians now: today one can only sympathize with them, because here, as they say, there is an obvious conflict of interests: they are tightly embedded politically and managerially into the “Atlanticist vertical”, they are forced to experience not only the imposed them actions against the national interests of their own countries, but also - in parallel - a rather tough rejection by their own "overseas leader".
Where globalist and nationalist trends, moreover nationalistic, are fighting in the same way, it is quite possible that now and again they are winning.
And if this happens, then the "colonial bureaucracy from among the natives", as a rule, has no place in the collapsing empire: the experience of Britain, ousted from the colonies in the twentieth century, and the tragedy of the "indigenous elites" grown up there earlier by the Anglo-Saxons have absolutely brilliantly shown ...
Thirdly, it is impossible to talk about the adoption of any "final decisions" by a party that quite officially has only "limited sovereignty".
And "leaks" in various kinds of media that Germany is trying to almost "buy off" the United States by building terminals specifically for American LNG, they speak here not so much about the reality of this "proposal" as about a similar state of affairs: on the one hand, this The gas pipeline (and we have written a lot about this) is a purely European project, it is vitally necessary for Europe, but it is Europe that needs to complete the construction of its own, let us stress it again, project, at least in the absence of obvious opposition from overseas.
And I am ready to buy it, including at the cost of one more national humiliation - what can we say about some completely unnecessary terminals.
The situation is extremely humiliating, of course.
But, apparently, the Europeans are already accustomed to living in such an interesting situation.
Even despite the fact that now (note, the Russian authorities did not intervene in this situation), judging by the official statements of the same German authorities, they managed to achieve almost the “previous positive equilibrium” in the Nord Stream 2 issue.
It is foolish to argue that this "equilibrium" is extremely unreliable and unstable.
Even if such, excuse me, nonsense, like the fake-like incident with Navalny, sewn with harsh white threads, could shake this “equilibrium” at a cost of tens of billions of euros in such an obvious way.
And it seems to us that it is not only the European voters who need to think about this situation: because yes, what is happening now in their power structures, where the split is going directly through the ruling elites themselves, is a real shame.
It is worth pondering here, as it seems to us, both for the Russian state power and for Russian business: does our country and its business structures generally need such a one that is far from the most reliable, because he is not responsible for his own word, although financially sound, and a technologically interesting partner?
No, not right now.
And, so to speak, strategically.
No, while something like the German business, as they say, "holds the blow".
And even, apparently, makes him "keep" his own political functionaries.
But how much of it - this business and a healthy part of the political elite - will suffice in the conditions of betrayal of another part of the elite: media, political, cultural, and whatever, intensively nurtured in the conditions of artificial "Anglo-Saxon universal humanity" literally for decades - we cannot say not what is on the example of Europe, but even on the example of their own country.
Well, yes, the secret of Punchinel, forgive us that we even ourselves have certain problems with this: for some reason, betrayal in favor of the Anglo-Saxons is especially attractive for a part of our educated class.
What can we say about the reliability of our European counterparties in the current circumstances.
However, to all appearances, we will finish the construction of Nord Stream 2 sooner or later.
Because this is exactly what we, unlike European politicians, are not even discussing.
And from the point of view of both European and Russian economies, in any case, this in itself will be quite significant and quite positive result.
But - and this also needs to be very clearly understood - the struggle around Nord Stream 2 will not end even after the physical completion of the gas pipeline construction.
And this "unstable equilibrium" will now be present in the European energy sector for a long time, as well as the split in European politics that has emerged from the example of Nord Stream 2.
At least in the local political elites.
The split that now - God bless Donald Trump and his sophisticated European politics - may at least prove to be the dominant trend for another American presidential term.
Or perhaps forever.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.