Like vinyl records and popped collars, rows between the United States and Europe over Russian energy are making a comeback. In the early 1980s Ronald Reagan’s attempts to thwart a Soviet pipeline that would bring Siberian gas to Europe irritated the West Germans and drove the French to proclaim the end of the transatlantic alliance. The cast of characters has shifted a little today, but many of the arguments are the same. In Nord Stream 2 (NS2), a proposed Russian gas pipeline, Germany sees a respectable project that will cut energy costs and lock in secure supplies. American politicians (and the ex-communist countries of eastern Europe) detect a Kremlin plot to deepen Europe’s addiction to cheap Russian gas. They decry German spinelessness.
Ukraine's Energy Challenge
The Economist: Germany’s Russian gas pipeline smells funny to America
Russian energy group Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller (R) and head of the supervisory board of Gazprom's Nord Stream 2 and former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (L) speak during a signing ceremony for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline agreement in Paris on April 24.
