Eastern Europe is afraid of a new Russian domination

Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times
The ambitious plans of Russian giant Gazprom’s new pipeline passing under the Baltic Sea is vkliniha between Eastern and Western Europe. Germany-Russian energy project brings benefits to the West, but Central and Eastern Europe fears fed by gas from a new Russian domination. Thus, gas-rich Russia and much contact sections EU members, who had sworn to work together to protect their own security.
Russian gas currently reaches Western Europe through the East. If Russia shut off the tap, to press for their neighbors to the east, the pressure felt by the stronger and richer Western countries.
Nord Stream pipeline will change the balance in this equation. It will traveling over 70 miles underwater from Russia to Germany, and around the former Soviet satellite states and provides a separate route for supplies to the West.
Eastern experts say that Russia plays energy game with neighbors. „Yesterday was the tanks today is oil,“ said Zbigniew Simyatkovski, former director of the Polish security services.
Russian president presented the situation differently. Gazprom, which provides Europe with 28% of gas, said $ 10.7-per billion project is a commercial rather than strategic. Iztochnogermanetsat Varnig Mathias, managing director of the project, believes that the Eastern Europeans’ fears are unfounded. Europe needs additional gas volumes to compensate for the decline in the yield of the North Sea and Russia as it is the best option.
European officials argue that the project will unite Europe and increase the overall energy security. European Commission and European Parliament is still in favor of it in 2000 and reaffirmed their commitment in 2006 „While there is a common energy policy, we are part of a higher priority level,“ says Sebastian Sas, chief representative of the project to the EU.
Authorities in Central and Eastern Europe are worried that once the profits from the pipeline, operated as a joint venture between Gazprom and the trio of Germany and Dutch companies, flow to the Russian equipment suppliers and Germany, the former subordinate to the Soviet Union will become more vulnerable energy blackmail.
Such tactics are not without precedent. Research organization at the Department of Defense Policy Sweden 55 points of supply disruptions tied to Eastern Europe after the disintegration of the USSR.
Analysts say Russia is now satisfied with shorter embargo periods, because it is still a rough game.
Last January, Russia cut natural gas pipeline through the submission of Ukraine neighborly dispute over tariffs. Three weeks hundreds of thousands of homes in Southeastern Europe have been without heating, and many factories have stopped working. The bilateral conflict is perceived and the mainland. Influential Western governments were furious, and Russia lost money. Mirror the new pipeline and South Stream, scheduled in the Black Sea, will prevent the West from these disputes and reduce the political and financial costs of Russia.
The possibility of arbitrary suspension of supply increases the likelihood of similar incidents in Eastern Europe, says Zbigniew Brzezinski, adviser on security in the Carter administration. He called the project a grandiose Russian plans for „separation between the Central and Western Europe, with regard to dependence on Russian energy resources. In Central Europeans are worried, subject to the former Soviet Union. “
Problem for Eastern Piping evokes memories of a more gloomy era of occupation and the Union and become an indirect debate about Russian intentions to land lords in the country since the end of World War II until the fall of the Berlin Wall. In a letter to President Obama last fall 23-pax intellectuals and former heads of state from Central Europe, including former Czech President Vaclav Havel and his Polish counterpart, Lech Walesa, argued that the war in Georgia, Russia has declared its sphere of interests uncertainties, which may have and their countries. With control of the pipelines, they wrote, „Russia acts as a revisionist power, pursues the old goals with modern methods. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski compared the deal between Russia and Germany pact Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact „in 1939, divided Central Europe into spheres of Germanic and Soviet influence:“ Consultation with other countries after the decision does not comply with our idea of solidarity. “
Reaction from the West, however, is missing. There May Russian policy „divide and conquer“ proved effective. „Russia is one of the most serious sources of disagreement in the EU – says Angela Wall, director of the Center for the Study of Eurasia, Russia and Eastern Europe at Georgetown University. – Russia and Gazprom successfully communicate and work with individual countries. “
Network of power and personal interests facilitated the process. Germany’s former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder used trade as a means of integrating Russia into Europe. „He was a firm deal. Without him it would be impossible, „said Zane from Baran Institute Hudson in New York. Weeks before the loss of Schroeder in 2005, his government negotiate the terms of the pipeline, including a loan guarantee from Germany amounted to $ 1.46 billion Shortly thereafter, Schroeder became chairman of the board of the consortium Nord Stream. He claims that he was not aware of the loan guarantee.
Executive Director Varnig is a former captain in the Stasi during the 80’s, when Vladimir Putin was a KGB agent in Dresden. Varnig past provoked speculation about shady connections from the Cold War behind the deal, but he argues that his spy career is not relevant.
Other connections are less clear. Former Prime Minister of Finland Paavo Liponen has received payment from the Nord Stream for permits. SAS, the contact of Nord Stream in Brussels, is his former adviser.
In 2008, Gazprom’s position in proposing Presidents South Stream consortium of the then Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, but he refused.
Now that gas pipeline is almost certainly frantsuzite trying to join the consortium by Gaz de France. Otherwise they may have to buy gas from Russia through Germany firm.
The question of European unity, raised fears of Eastern Europe, is of secondary importance in the fight for resources. „Russia has skillfully exploited market capitalism – Neue said Pierre, a professor at Cambridge and a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. – In an open, competitive capitalist economy and people are free to build pipelines. „