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by raxxorrax 1663 days ago
Oh, it is less eco-friendly. Just in the current political situation the US is a lot closer to Germany than Russia.

I think the current conflict between Russia and the US is pretty stupid and a remnant of the cold war that has been rekindled for some reason. 15 years ago Germany had a vastly better relation to Russia and the situation was far more stable and peaceful. Return of aggression were almost unthinkable. All this has been destroyed by diplomacy of the last decade. I don't really care if it was Putin that needed to deflect from domestic issues or NATO that dabbled to deeply in Ukraine that ultimately lead us in this situation. Fact is that the situation vastly deteriorated.

But all that should be disregarded for energy policy. To get off coal, gas is the vastly superior energy source. Still a fossil fuel, but far less dangerous. Nuclear power cannot be brought up fast enough and there are political problems too.
1 comments
Atatator 1663 days ago
Just a couple more comments/questions:

"US is a lot closer to Germany than Russia" - do you think that's natural, or more due to US lobby organisations such as Atlantik-Brücke ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantik-Br%C3%BCcke ) and other agents of influence?

"NATO that dabbled" - it feels like it would be more appropriate to say "US that dabbed". It was Victoria Nuland who was handing out cookies to "protesters" (and a lot of other shenanigans involving Hunter Biden, Westinghouse, selling junk vessels which point to that).

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raxxorrax 1662 days ago
I think a trivial fact is that there are fewer language barriers. Doesn't guarantee a good relationship of course, but it leads to far more cultural exchange. Doesn't mean that you cannot have a good relation to Russia too. On the contrary, I think that could help right now.

I do think the Atlantik-Brücke is a vehicle to keep people talking to each other, but I believe the general reputation of the US in the population is relevant too. You hear much criticism of the US, but that is in my opinion because of the US position of hegemony.

Maybe the "US that dabbled" is more precise but there is a longer history in that region especially relating to nuclear disarmament. Even more precise would be the Bush administration I guess.

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the-dude 1663 days ago
The EU was in to it : Guy Verhofstadt speaking to protesters in Maidan Square, Kiev

https://www.euractiv.com/section/eu-elections-2014/video/guy...

Van Baalen ( NL ) was there too, both were EU parliament members at the time IIRC.

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