“I proceed from the assumption that Nord Stream 2 will be completed.

The only question is when.

We decide the fate of our energy policy here in Europe.

We are not criticizing the United States for doubling its imports from Russia over the past year and is now the world's second largest importer of Russian heavy oil.

The United States has the right to an independent energy policy.

And we also have it. " 

This is a quote from an interview with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

Yes, after everything that happened, we expected a little different from Germany.

Those who, in the days of Navalny's “poisoning,” watched German television broadcasts and publications in newspapers know that the closure of the Nord Stream project was said almost as a fait accompli.

While the “Berlin patient” lay in a coma, experts from the “green” party spent days and nights on television, who all said as one: Nord Stream must be stopped, we can no longer support Putin and his economy.

Therefore - diversification, oil and gas can be taken in other places, and it is good for the environment.

It seemed that the whole circus around Navalny was happening just behind this.

And nevertheless, the German establishment, through the lips of the minister, announced its decision: "There will be a stream."

Why?

Fast forward a bit back in time.

Recall the beginning of the migration crisis: in 2014, refugees are just beginning to arrive on their boats to the shores of Italy and Greece and break through to more prosperous countries: Germany, Sweden, France.

Angela Merkel, the leader of the conservative Christian Democrats, makes moderately harsh speeches: yes, it's terrible that there are still famines and wars in the world, yes, we are glad that we are known and loved all over the world, but no, Germany is not rubber.

Moreover, when one day, at a meeting with schoolchildren, a bully-eyed Palestinian girl turns to Frau Chancellor with a tearful story about how her parents are not given refugee status, the iron Angela strokes her head, but still firmly says: “I'm sorry, but many will have to return back ". 

And everything continues until the world flies around the famous photograph of a dead baby, taken out on the beach.

The rhetoric of the head of state is changing.

The "open door policy" appears and the famous Wir schaffen das - "we can handle it."

Then - the "night of long arms" in Cologne, the terrorist attack in Berlin and further with all the stops.

What happened?

Childless Merkel was so impressed by the photo of a dead child?

Even if so, the fateful decision for the country could not be made under its influence, and even more so - made alone.

The head of parliament, the bundeskanzler, is not so much a person as the resultant of many wills.

Those who defend Germany's Germans have faced unequal battles with those who need cheap labor, construction contracts for dormitories, purchases of budget drugs and contracts for medical insurance for newcomers - and it's not hard to guess who won.

The dead child was media manipulation, a humane explanation for an unpopular move for the masses.

Let's go back to 2020.

Alexei Navalny comes out of a coma, Angela Merkel visits him, still not quite awake from drug hallucinations, at the Charité.

After that, the oppositionsfüehrer (as it is titled in Germany) gives interviews to literally every Western media, where it overturns all the preparatory work of German TV channels.

He says that sectoral sanctions are going nowhere, that personal sanctions are needed against "Putin's friends."

And the EU introduces them, bypassing the already buried "green" "Nord Stream".

Let's not wonder if Merkel suggested these words to Navalny during her secret visit, whether he thought of it himself or just coincided.

But let us venture to suggest that the forces have agreed again.

Industrial, energy old Germany defended a construction site that was profitable for itself.

She snatched it out of the hands of those who had completely destroyed the German car industry and forced to close nuclear power plants.

In his interview, Heiko Maas threatened America for a reason: her star-striped ears stick out behind all the "green" movement.

This round remained for our allies, albeit conditional.

While.

But who would have thought in 2014 that Angela Merkel would turn 180 degrees?

And 2020, full of surprises, is not over yet.

The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.