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Trump continues to have an interesting relationship with reality and the truth....
Russia exports to Germany are 16 Billion per year.
GDP of Germany - 3.5 TRILLION dollars.
So Russia "captures" about .4% of the economy of Germany.
Oh, Germany exports MORE to Russia than Russia to Germany....
What a bunch of BS.
If we want to go to "power" or "energy", Germany gets 10% from Russia and is no way reliant on it. They can get it or substitutes from many many places.
AND, Germany supports all the sanctions against Russia.
It's truly amazing that anyone believes a word out of this guy's trap.
.
I suppose Germany feels bad for Russia and gives them a handout. Doesn't the pipeline from Russia go thru Germany to supply far more than .4% to the rest of Europe?
wiki says,,,,,
The Russian Federation supplies a significant volume of fossil fuels and is the largest exporter of oil and natural gas to the European Union. In 2007, the European Union imported from Russia 185 million tonnes of crude oil, which accounted for 32.6% of total oil import, and 100.7 million tonnes of oil equivalent of natural gas, which accounted 38.7% of total gas import.
Did you actually read what about dozen people wrote on this thread? The captive comment is NOT about whether Germany or Russia has a trade deficit with each other.
Use your common sense and think about it. If Germany depends on Russia for a large percentage of its energy supplies, then Russia now has leverage over Germany. You can say that gives Russia a great deal of leverage over Germany which can be used during a critical period in foreign affairs.
The problem is that Germany is in the NATO alliance where the major potential adversary is Russia. But how can Germany meet its obligations to its Allies if Russia can just turn off its energy supplies? That is what Trump means by captive.
To make matters worse, Germany has practically disarmed. The European Union's largest and wealthiest nation only has a army of about 60,0000. How can Germany help deter the Russians with only 60,000 men?
The whole concept of NATO is to avoid conflict by forming a collective security organization, peace thru strength. But the Germans have decided to ignore their own contribution, concentrate on making money and instead piggy back their security needs on their Allies, especially the United States. If everyone did that, then the Alliance becomes worthless and war becomes more likely not less.
Not to mention if/when Russia decides to restrict/cut off/drastically raise prices on what they're sending Germany it's possible NATO would have to get involved thereby putting us at odds with Russia militarily.
Cutting of energy to Germany to strangle it "could" be seen as an act of war depending on what's involved.
Its funny. Germany has plenty of energy resources, coal, but instead buys gas from Russia. They get 70% of their gas from the ruskies. If russia cuts off the gas in mid winter, they are in deep dodo. Germany thinks this is fine, but still wants NATO?.
Time for NATO to be dissolved, and USA get out of Europe. The cold war was over almost 30 years ago.
Not to mention if/when Russia decides to restrict/cut off/drastically raise prices on what they're sending Germany it's possible NATO would have to get involved thereby putting us at odds with Russia militarily.
Cutting of energy to Germany to strangle it "could" be seen as an act of war depending on what's involved.
I very much doubt cutting off natural gas would be seen as an armed attack.
Quote:
Article 5
The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security .
This was a correct statement Germany made themselves dependent on Russia just like Ukraine did
The fact that mr trump makes accurate statements will not stop his opponents
Last edited by Huckleberry3911948; 07-13-2018 at 08:24 AM..
The claim: Germany imports 60% to 70% of its energy from Russia. Reality Check verdict: Germany relies on Russia for most of its imports of natural gas. But gas makes up less than 20% of Germany's energy mix for power production.
I suppose Germany feels bad for Russia and gives them a handout. Doesn't the pipeline from Russia go thru Germany to supply far more than .4% to the rest of Europe?
wiki says,,,,,
The Russian Federation supplies a significant volume of fossil fuels and is the largest exporter of oil and natural gas to the European Union. In 2007, the European Union imported from Russia 185 million tonnes of crude oil, which accounted for 32.6% of total oil import, and 100.7 million tonnes of oil equivalent of natural gas, which accounted 38.7% of total gas import.
Germany is just following its interest. Russian gas is the natural place for them to get it. Russia is not in a position to invade anywhere . The BS around this is Russia moving like a hot knife through butter where people are waving Russian flags. Georgia, and Crimea oh my. Maybe Crimean and Ossetian don't want to be ethnically cleansed or something? We all knew that this would be an issue after the Soviets broke up. Mother Russia was not there to break up the fights ...
Germany is just following its interest. Russian gas is the natural place for them to get it. Russia is not in a position to invade anywhere . The BS around this is Russia moving like a hot knife through butter where people are waving Russian flags. Georgia, and Crimea oh my. Maybe Crimean and Ossetian don't want to be ethnically cleansed or something? We all knew that this would be an issue after the Soviets broke up. Mother Russia was not there to break up the fights ...
Germany is just following its interest....
Yeah, that the problem. The Germans sit back and make money while letting other countries pay the cost of defending Eastern Europe and Germany itself. Did you know that Germany with a population of over 80 million has an army of only 60,000? That is less than 3 times the size of the Berlin police force! That is even smaller than the 100,000 German army after the Versailles treaty which the Allies considered Germany to be effectively DISARMED!
Russia is not in a position to invade anywhere.....
Yeah, well tell that to the Georgians or the Ukrainians. Or the Moldovans where the Russians maintain troops in "Transnistria". Or Poland and the 3 Baltic states, which the Russians periodically threaten.
Or perhaps the Finns or the Swedes? Both countries have been neutral for a long time, in Sweden's case for over 200 years, but in both countries support for joining NATO has been rising. Russia has been threatening neutral Sweden for some time now (for God's sakes why???), and if Sweden ever did join NATO, Vladamir Putin should get the singular achievement reward of turning a friendly neutral nation into a potential enemy.
Btw, with Germany being effectively disarmed and being dependent on Russian energy sources, what would Germany do if Russia invaded say Estonia or Latvia? It does not have to be a full scale invasion, it could be Russian "volunteers" coming in to protect the local Russian settler population in the Baltic states, like they did in Ukraine.
What would Merkel do? Send a strongly worded protest letter?
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