What happened during Olaf Scholz's inaugural visit to the White House was a somewhat bizarre spectacle.

The American President says straight out that Nord Stream 2 will be terminated if Putin invades Ukraine - and the German Chancellor stands by and says nothing about it.

He only says that we will act together.

He doesn't even mention the gas pipeline, which arouses so much suspicion not only among partners in Washington, by its name.

Mind you, this is not about an American project with Russia.

Nord Stream 2 is a German-Russian project and the first authority to decide the fate of the pipeline would be the German government.

But Biden leaves no doubt that Washington would close the line - as if Germany were just a subcontractor in the matter.

Estimate of costs for this and that procedure

Scholz traveled to Washington to present Germany as a reliable ally.

It is not certain that he succeeded in doing this with his rhetorical twisting and turning, even if Biden demonstratively expressed his confidence in him.

You have to put the statements of the Chancellor and the President together like an experienced diplomat to read that Germany is also putting Nord Stream 2 up for grabs if Putin invades Ukraine.

Why Scholz doesn't even want to say so openly when the critical American public listens to him probably has a lot to do with the sensitivities of his party.

It is not primarily Putin who is being appeased here, but the SPD.

One gets the impression that the only way Scholz could represent an end to Nord Stream 2 in front of the Russia friends in his party would be through an American word of power.

However, this has nothing to do with leadership in a major European crisis, as one might expect in Washington, but also in Germany, from the head of government of the largest EU country.

Scholz gave the lead to Biden on this issue.

However, Biden also contributed some oddities during the joint appearance.

He committed that Nord Stream 2 would be terminated if Putin sent soldiers or tanks across the border with Ukraine.

Conversely, which the Kremlin will of course immediately draw, this means that anything below this threshold would not endanger the gas project.

As is well known, there are a few arrows in the Russian quiver, keyword hybrid warfare.

Biden recently made this mistake when he publicly distinguished between an invasion and “minor intrusion.”

In this respect, Scholz is right: one should not spell out too precisely when which sanctions would be imposed.

That works like a cost estimate from which Putin can read the price for this or that course of action.

Scholz is traveling to Moscow next week.

There, too, he will be asked how he feels about Nord Stream 2, albeit with the opposite sign: Putin wants a guarantee for the project.

Let's see what Scholz then (not) says.