Former German Chancellor Schröder Insists Media To Stop Russia-Bashing, Defends Nord Stream 2

Jan. 30 , 2021 (EIRNS)—In an interview with today’s issue of Rheinische Post, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) said that the mainstream media attacks on the Nord Stream 2, the submarine gas pipeline project from Russia to Germany, are not in line with reality. “The Russia-bashing which is conducted there, is not the majority view of our people—I am definitely convinced of that.”

The pipeline, which is 94% complete, is designed to secure the energy supply for the next generation, also in view of the planned exits from coal and nuclear, Schröder said. The driving motive behind the U.S. Congress campaign against the project is to sell gas produced by fracking to Germany, which production is damaging for the environment, expensive and qualitatively less usable for the energy generation, he said, “If we stop the completion of Nord Stream 2, we are sawing off the branch we are sitting on.”

Asked about the Navalny case, Schröder replied he is not interested in “daily affairs,” but rather in “fundamental orientations,” and this implied that Germany must have a genuine interest in Russia having its “own identity and its own economic power.... We must not view Russia as an enemy but as a potential partner.”