Nord Stream, season 2? The idea of reactivating the gazoduction doomed by the failure through
To an American company, as part of Ukraine's fire termination negotiations, retreats Germany's appetite for cheap Russian gas. Such a project would be devastating to the European unity, notes Sylvie Kauffmann, editorialist at “Le Monde”
The news deserves attention, it just comes from a real estate developer that has become a negotiator thanks to a former real estate developer. Returning from St. Petersburg, where he met for the third time with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump, April 14, at Fox News, “the possibility of relaunching the Russia-US tasks through very convincing commercial opportunities, which will bring real stability to the region.”
“Partnerships create stability,” the special envoy explained. “The money solves a lot of problems, Steve!” – added Sean Hannity, the host of the show. “You are a very successful businessman!”
Steve Witkoff adds that we are “on the verge of something very, very important to the world.” He is convinced that Vladimir Putin seeks “a sustainable peace” in Ukraine – which did not prevent him from bombing the city the day before, killing 35 people – but “it is a complicated situation.”
So what could these “business opportunities” be that the emissary offers? There was a lot of talk about a possible agreement between Washington and Kiev on the exploitation by American companies of rare minerals and lands that are supposed to be abundant in the Ukrainian basement, even if no one saw the first nest. Donald Trump's team was less open about another bead, as profitable as controversial: Russian gas.
But that's exactly what it could be. Russian gas and Europe is an old story that ends badly, but the Trump administration seems ready to revive.
A brief reminder: Until the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022, the prosperity of the German industry was largely based on the unlimited gas supply, which Moscow sold cheaper than any other European country. Two gas pipelines, Nord Stream 1 and then Nord Stream 2, were built by the Russian Gazprom giant to transport this gas to Germany through the Baltic Sea.
Over the years, despite warnings from its neighbors and Brussels, Berlin has become totally dependent on Moscow for energy supply, with the price of serious strategic vulnerability. This connection was broken with the invasion of 2022; Germany had to go to liquefied gas imported within a year, for which it pays 30% more. The gas pipes were closed, one damaged by sabotage, and Nord Stream, a subsidiary in Switzerland of Gazprom, was declared bankrupt.
“A little surrealist”
The German economy did not really recover after this shock. The gas, expensive, remains a significant part of the energy mix, being still very dependent on fossil fuels. Inevitably, when Donald Trump began to reconnect Russia, promising to bring peace to Ukraine, a number of industrialists and German elected, especially from the Eastern regions where the gas pipelines arrived, began to dream of the return of Russian gas.
Some articles from Wall Street Journal, at the end of 2024, after the election of Donald Trump, then from the Financial Times and Bild, at the end of February and the beginning of March, reappeared the wick. An American businessman familiar with Russia, Stephen Lynch, said he is thinking of buying North Stream, then one of the key people of Nord Stream, the German Matthias Warnig, former Agent Stasi at Gazprom, makes maneuvers to relaunch the gas pipeline, supported by one of Donald Trump's, Richard Grenell … US ambassador to Germany, during the first term of the president. Negators followed, more or less vehement. However, at the end of March, Sergei Lavrov, the head of Russian diplomacy, confirmed the existence of “conversations about Nord Stream”, considering interesting, although “a little surrealist”, that the United States could force the European Union to resume its connections with Russian gas.
If Nord Stream becomes American, the bad reputation of Gazprom is deleted
“The entrepreneurial spirit of our American friends is impressive,” Linkedin Thomas Bareiss, the deputy of the Democratic Christian Union, said. “When the peace between Russia and Ukraine will be restored, the relationships will be normalized, the sanctions will be raised, and then the gas will be able to travel again, this time through a US-controlled pipeline.”
If Nord Stream becomes American, the bad reputation of Gazprom is deleted, and the cursed symbol of Russia will be deleted as by charm. German business firms are already at work. “Nord Stream is not destroyed,” an official of the Green Party in Germany told us. “A stamp from the Ministry of Economy will be sufficient to allow the activity to be resumed, and the future government will be difficult to refuse this to the Americans.”
Minister of Economy for a few more days, ecologist Robert Habeck has reminded that “independence from Russian gas is of strategic importance to the Government in terms of security policy.” Lars Klingbeil, a co-lider of the Social Democratic Party and probably minister in the Coalition of the future Chancellor Friedrich Merz, also pronounced against returning to Russian gas. The subject is all the more explosive as it divides even the interior of the parties. The sirens of the old German-Russian relationship still have beautiful songs in the repertoire.
As if the lessons of Putin's blackmail through gases and European naivety have already been forgotten, such a project to revitalize Russian gases in Europe for the benefit of an American company, if materialized, would be the pardon of the rectification of the Russian-American relations initiated by Donald Trump, which will divide Europe: (Material made with the support of Rador Radio Romania)
