RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15353/germany-russia-nord-stream-pipeline

A report by the Swedish Defense Research Agency found that Russia has threatened to cut energy supplies to Central and Eastern European more than 50 times. Even after some of those states joined the European Union, Russian threats continued.

Not surprisingly, Germany’s current Social Democratic Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, has criticized the U.S. sanctions as foreign interference. “Decisions on European energy policy are made in Europe, not the USA,” he tweeted on December 12. “We fundamentally reject foreign interventions and sanctions with extraterritorial effects.”

U.S. President Donald Trump, like his predecessor Barack Obama, has opposed the pipeline project. Trump in particular has criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her refusal to increase defense spending while at the same time supporting the pipeline that will funnel billions of dollars to Russia…. “So, we’re supposed to protect you against Russia and you pay billions of dollars to Russia and I think that’s very inappropriate. Germany will have almost 70 percent of their country controlled by Russia with natural gas. You tell me, is that appropriate?” — U.S. President Donald J. Trump.

“One must assume that Putin’s pet pipeline is not really a business venture — and that the fools are the Europeans, in particular the Germans…. In short, Nord Stream 2 could make Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states less secure, undermine the EU’s security strategy, give Russia a big stick for threatening Eastern Europe and sow discord among NATO allies. To Mr. Putin, causing so much trouble for a mere $11 billion must seem like a bargain. For Europe it is a trap…. The mystery is why Germany has fallen into it and has been twisting French arms to do the same.” — The Economist.

A Swiss company working on the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline directly linking Russia to Germany has suspended pipelaying operations after U.S. President Donald J. Trump signed into law new sanctions.

The sanctions are part of an effort by the United States to halt completion of the €9.5 billion ($10.5 billion) pipeline, which would double shipments of Russian natural gas to Germany by transporting the gas under the Baltic Sea. Opponents of the pipeline warn that it will give Russia a stranglehold over Germany’s energy supply. Proponents counter that with European domestic natural gas production in rapid decline, the pipeline will enhance security of supply.

American sanctions may delay Nord Stream 2, but they are probably too late to kill the project. More than 80% of the 1,230-km (764-mile) pipeline has already been laid and the project is expected to be completed in 2020, according to Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak.

On December 17, the U.S. Senate, by a vote of 86 to 6, passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual defense spending bill, which includes the Nord Stream 2 sanctions language. The measure previously cleared the U.S. House of Representatives on December 11 by a vote of 377 to 48. President Trump signed it into law on December 20.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15347/turkey-gunboats-mediterranean

Erdoğan seems to think that his best defense in the Mediterranean power game is an offense.

One emerging power in Libya, however, is not a Western state actor…. Russia has the potential to step into the Libyan theater with a bigger proxy and direct force, to establish its second permanent Mediterranean military presence.

Also as in Syria, Turkey’s Islamist agenda will probably fail in Libya, but by the time Erdoğan understands that, it might be too late to get out of Moscow’s orbit.

Turkey, since 2011, has been waging a pro-Sunni proxy war in Syria, in the hope of one day establishing in Damascus a pro-Turkey, Islamist regime. This ambition has failed, costing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey violent political turmoil on both sides of Turkey’s 911-km border with Syria and billions of dollars spent on more than 4 million Syrian refugees scattered across the Turkish soil.

In Egypt, in 2011-2012, Erdoğan aggressively supported the failed Muslim Brotherhood government and deeply antagonized the incumbent — then-general but now president — Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Since Erdoğan’s efforts in Syria and Egypt failed, his Sunni Islamist ambitions have found a new proxy-war theater: Libya.

On December 10, Erdoğan said he could deploy troops in Libya if the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli (which Turkey supports) requested it. Erdoğan’s talks with GNA’s head, Fayez al-Sarraj, who is fighting a war against the Libyan National Army (LNA) of General Khalifa Haftar, produced two ostensibly strategic agreements: a memorandum of understanding on providing the GNA with arms, military training and personnel; and a maritime agreement delineating exclusive economic zones in the Mediterranean waters.

Greece and Egypt protested immediately while the European Council unequivocally condemned the controversial accords. Meanwhile, the deals apparently escalated a proxy competition between Turkey’s old (Greece) and new (Egypt and the United Arab Emirates) rivals.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/anti-macron-yellow-vests-protests-continue-unabated-in-france/

Although it’s not exactly considered frontpage news by the leftist mainstream media, the so-called Yellow Vests continue to protest every single weekend against President Macron’s horrendous policies. Don’t believe me? Well, just watch this rather inspiring video:

This weekend was the 59th weekend in a row that the Gilets Jaunes or Yellow Vests have taken to the streets in order to show the government they mean business. They are against Macron’s pension reform, and also protest against the rising cost of living (which makes it virtually impossible for blue-collar workers to live a normal kind of life), while the rich are getting all kinds of tax breaks.

Of course, there are a lot of reasons not to like the French (and yes that’s coming from someone who, although a Dutchman himself, has French ancestors). They’re arrogant. They refuse to speak English to tourists. Their cheese smells horrible. Their soccer team beat the Dutch team in the 1998 world cup with penalties. And yes, their movies are awful too.

Finally, there is the little fact that France has been living on the dole in Europe for ages. The rich northern EU members are paying France’s bills. Trust me when I say that those of us from those northern countries aren’t exactly happy with that situation, especially not because we see Frenchmen refusing to give up privileges we had to give up years or even decades ago to prevent the welfare state from collapsing.