[Ukraine/Russia Conflict] Germany’s Folly Preview – by Diane Francis (Diane Francis Website – January 27, 2022)

https://dianefrancis.substack.com/

Germany, normally considered one of the world’s smartest nations, rang in 2022 by pulling the plug on three of its last six nuclear plants and plans to close the rest by the end of 2022.

This policy to de-nuclearize the country has been a disaster and made the country dependent on Russia for energy, putting both Europe and the West at risk. Germany is Europe’s largest consumer of electricity and natural gas, the fifth-largest consumer of oil in the world, and more than half of all its energy comes from Russia.

This dependency, and winter, is why Berlin has broken ranks with its allies and refused to cancel Putin’s gas pipeline to Germany, refused to provide weapons to Ukraine or to let others do so, and frustrated efforts by the Americans to prepare crippling sanctions to avert a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The historical irony in all of this is obvious: German arrogance + Russian collaboration + Winter = Defeat … It seems some countries simply never learn. This is the backdrop to the news that has dragged on and dominated, for weeks.

For the rest of this column: https://dianefrancis.substack.com/p/germanys-folly-preview?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo0MTI0NDI1MywicG9zdF9pZCI6NDc3NzU2ODIsIl8iOiIzbER5VyIsImlhdCI6MTY0MzI4ODY4MSwiZXhwIjoxNjQzMjkyMjgxLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjU3NTQ2Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.UA6YI26DCurKCmqptIQUuPUNOC-Tc0aLEWFsKw_pLCE