Editor’s Note :

Due to retire in two months, Angela Merkel could easily have kicked the Nord Stream 2 can down the road, letting her successor decide on the Russia-Germany Baltic gas line. Instead, she went out of her way this summer to reach a Germany-US deal – over the heads of Ukrainians. Ukraine’s weak hand seems to have been weakened by the political errors of President Zelenskiy.

Two years ago, on April 12, 2019, one week before Ukraine’s runoff presidential vote, President Poroshenko, far behind in the opinion polls, was welcomed in Berlin for a grip and grin photo op with Chancellor Merkel. Behind the amity were five years in the trenches: two politicians of roughly the same generation working to build EU sanctions against Russia. During that time, Germany became the top EU aid donor to Ukraine. At a press conference that day, Merkel said she and Poroshenko “are in constant contact.’ She added: “We have built very close relations in the last few years.” In a sign of things to come, Merkel declined that day to receive candidate Zelenskiy. In contrast, on that same day, President Macron received in Paris – separately – both of Ukraine’s presidential candidates.

Jump three months to July 15, 2019: President Trump calls Zelenskiy — and then leads him down the garden path. “Germany does almost nothing for you,” says the American President. “All they do is talk — and I think it’s something that you should really ask them about. When I was speaking to Angela Merkel, she talks Ukraine. But she ·doesn’t do anything…but the United States has been very, very good to Ukraine.”

Zelenskiy jumps at the bait, according to the transcript which remained secret for all of two months: “Yes, you are absolutely right. Not only 100%, but actually 1000%. And I can tell you the following: I did talk to Angela Merkel, and I did meet with her. I also met and talked with Macron. And I told them that they are not doing quite as much as they need to be doing on the issues with the sanctions…logically, the European Union should be our biggest partner but technically the United States is a much bigger partner than the European Union.”

Jump to March 2020: President Zelenskiy fires Ruslan Ryaboshapka from the post of Prosecutor General, ostensibly for refusing to indict Poroshenko on corruption charges.

Finally, here is a little known reason why Chancellor Merkel might want the Russian pipelines. Both Nord Stream 1 and 2 make landfall in Lubmin, a windswept village that happens to be in the Eastern German district that Merkel has represented for the last 31 years. From Lubmin, one new overland pipeline takes gas west to Bremen, and a second south to the Czech Republic. Maybe Angela Merkel wants to retire this fall, knowing that she has converted her economically depressed home region into the new gas hub for Europe. With Best Regards Jim Brooke