Let me introduce you to this fine German politician https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schr%C3%B6der https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schr%C3%B6der who

Let me introduce you to this fine German politician https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schr%C3%B6der https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schr%C3%B6der who "Since leaving public office, Schröder has worked for Russian state-owned energy companies, including Nord Stream AG, Rosneft, and Gazprom. (...) He was chairman of the board of Nord Stream AG and of Rosneft but in 2022 resigned from the latter and opted not to join the board of Russian state-run gas company Gazprom. (...) In his last days in office in 2005 he signed a deal between Germany and Russian state-owned Gazprom to build Nord Stream 1 before leaving office and almost immediately joining the pipeline company’s board." A politician of his calibre cannot function without an extensive support network and connections across the political spectrum. There were a lot of people helping him. It was and still is a broad, cross-party support based on the German Ostpolitik from 1970s. That gives him and the people around him a lot of influence over German and European politics. The Nord Stream deal was designed to make Europe dependent on Russian natural resources and weaken position of Eastern Europe. It was opposed by Eastern European countries who saw it quite rightly as the next Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pac... in disguise. But even if we discard their opinions, here's a document prepared by the European Parliament in 2008 https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/dv/afet_01042008_security/afet_01042008_securityen.pdf https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/... Nobody in Europe was fooled by Russians, but German politicians could not or did not want to hear it. Germans kept rejecting all Eastern European objections to the deal and other decisions that followed, including Nord Stream 2. German politicians crossed the line and began implementing Russian foreign policy in Europe. In 20214 Ukraine paid the price of German Ostpolitik. Here's a good summary of how Germany played this game: https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-inc-played-russian-roulette-and-lost-ukraine-war-energy-gas-trade/ https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-inc-played-russian-r... and here's an early summary of Germany's behaviour https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/osw-commentary/2014-04-03/german-reaction-to-russian-ukrainian-conflict-shock-and https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/osw-commentary/2014-04-... And recently, this information came to light https://www.yahoo.com/news/angela-merkel-concealed-information-russia-174619023.html https://www.yahoo.com/news/angela-merkel-concealed-informati... You cannot have united Europe with a significant member undermining its principles by making it dependent on energy supplies from an aggressive enemy and being an advocate of the enemy's interests. German politicians are compromised to the point where they just cannot see how compromised they are.