INTRODUCTION. The increasing German business, political and military links with a Russia which is suppressing democracy at home, renewing its nuclear military force and threatening pre-emptive strikes abroad is a grave threat both to the UK and USA and to East European countries already nervous about German expansionism. During the cold war those states could defend themselves against German fire by sitting in the Russian frying pan. Now frying pan and fire have joined forces, as they did – temporarily – before the second world war.
Indeed Russia’s agreement to allow German troops to cross Russia on their way to Afghanistan is reminiscent of Germany’s transportation of Lenin to Moscow during the First World War!
The Russians have agreed to the establishment of a German consulate general in Kaliningrad (formerly the German City of Koenigsberg in historic Prussia), further aiding the German effective takeover of that piece of Russia inside the EU! Germany is Russia’s biggest trade partner and (in a classic move of that corporatist power based on big business and political State) has increased investment in Russia by 30% in the last year.
Russians seem to be of two kinds – the ignorant who have forgotten their history and the new geopliticians like Putin who think they can use German business to rebuild economic power and German/EU political support to counter US power. It did not quite work out that way after the Molotov Ribbentrop pact before the second world war – but are there any (non Communist) Russians awake to the threat which the EU and German Europe represent? The following report from german-foreign-policy.com is another timely reminder of the Drang nach Osten.
EKATERINBURG – Berlin and Moscow are cooperating in the establishment of a group of states which will, on a case by case basis, oppose the USA in order to achieve its economic and political interests. During the consultations between the German and Russian governments in Ekaterinburg, agreements were reached on a series of projects. These will not only strengthen the economic integration of Russia but will also increase military collaboration.
Strategic investments
German economic influence will be strengthened considerably with more than a dozen investment projects. The agreements concluded by the German business world, as well as the declarations of intent concerning ,,strategic projects” within the framework of the meeting, include about seven billion Euro for the coming years. With these actions the companies follow Berlin’s endeavours to employ ,,strategic investments” in Russia in order to tighten its relations with Germany. Daimler-Chrysler executive, Mangold, who chairs the ,,Ost-Ausschuss” (Committee East) of the German business community, explains that ,,Russia is in the centre of interest of German enterprises” . At the preliminary stage of the consultations in Ekaterinburg, the Russian economic ministry noticed a 30 percent increase in German investments this year; Putin labelled Germany, with its trade volume of 24 billion Euro this year, as ,,Russia’s most important trade partner”.
1) Russia’s integration into Germany’s global power strategies progresses as well. The Federal Government announced that in questions of foreign policy a ,,great degree of consensus” exists. This specifically refers to further action in the Near East, where Berlin and Moscow want to assert their own economic and political interests over those of the USA. In addition, the establishment of the German consulate general in Kaliningrad, requested by Berlin for a number of years, has finally been arranged.
Military cooperation
Berlin and Moscow will also continue to improve existing military collaboration. Germany is the first NATO member which is permitted in the future to complete military transports over Russian territory; in the future German tanks and soldiers will be transported to Afghanistan through Russia. In addition, Schröder and Putin signed a project which provides for the modernisation of the Russian nuclear armed forces.
2) In the framework of this 1.5 billion project, financed by the German State, German businesses will participate in the disposal of nuclear submarines and the construction of a chemical weapons disposal facility; thus providing access to the sovereign region of Murmansk which, until now, had been prohibited. Previously the Russian president had threatened NATO and, along with it, the USA with a ,,radical change” of Russian military strategy and had announced a modernisation of Russian nuclear forces with a new generation of strategic rockets with multiple nuclear war heads. In addition, Putin announced, on the occasion of the German-Russian meeting, that Russia reserves the right of preventive strikes.
Awakening memories
The increased military cooperation of Berlin and Moscow raises considerable anxiety in those states which had been overrun by Germany during World War II. Already prior to World War II, the German military, together with the Red Army, had conducted secret rearmament programs and had conducted illegal manoeuvres on the territory of the USSR. With those actions Berlin had circumvented international controls and changed the reduced army, ordered by the Treaty of Versailles, into an army of aggression.
1) See also earlier article BASF: Access to the largest energy reserves of the world
2) See also earlier article German Armed Forces wants ,,influence over nuclear bombs”
Sources:
Russland droht Nato mit neuer Militaer-Strategie; Financial Times Deutschland 02.10.2003
Schroeder und Putin kurbeln in der Ural-Stadt Jekaterinburg Wirtschaftsprojekte an; www.bundesregierung.de
09.10.2003
Deutsches Generalkonsulat für Koenigsberg; www.russland.ru 09.10.2003
Schroeder faehrt die Ernte ein; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 10.10.2003
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