German Chancellor Angela Merkel might be holding her thumb down on Russian President Vladimir Putin because of his action to annex the Crimea from the Ukraine…..But that doesn’t mean she won’t cut a deal to supply her country with gas from Russia…
And Russian leader Putin flew in Germany to try to warm things up with the German leader that has Euorpe’s strongest economy and speaker for the European Union….
Of course Donald Trump isn’t happy with Merkel doing something he has been stymied from doing….
Leading in dealing with Russia on the world stage….
At the Helsinki press conference with the Russian leader, Trump told the media: “I’m not sure necessarily that [the Nord Stream pipeline expansion is] in the best interests of Germany or not. That was a decision that they made. We will be competing [with Russia to supply gas].”
Just days earlier, at the NATO summit in Brussels, he had ranted that Germany “is totally controlled by Russia” — all part of an apparent attempt, to many German ears, by the U.S. president to bully them into buying more liquified natural gas from America.
But if Trump hoped to knock the Nord Stream 2 project off course, Putin and Merkel were keen to show it was still very much on. “Germany is one of our country’s leading economic partners,” said Putin, rattling off statistics aimed at illustrating growing bilateral trade and the high number of German companies operating in Russia.
The two may speak each others’ language — Putin is fluent in German owing to his time as a spy in East Germany, while Merkel learnt Russian at school — but on international affairs they remain far apart. In their pre-summit comments, delivered without taking questions from the media, Merkel stressed global responsibility while Putin emphasized economic cooperation — especially on gas supply….
Note….
Merkel is NOT seen as beholding to the Russians and there are no doubts that she would give away the store to Putin….
The German economy is bigger and stronger than the Russian……
Putin need’s the trade income as much as Germany needs the gas….
It’s gotta burn Trump seeing a woman leader do what he can’t….
image..express.co.uk