Posted on 07/11/2018 1:44:10 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
“Germany is totally controlled by Russia … They will be getting between 60 and 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline, and you tell me if that is appropriate because I think its not,” Trump said.
The U.S. president was speaking at a press conference in front of NATO representatives ahead of a two-day summit.
The Trump administration’s policies indicate it views security and trade as intimately linked. And when it comes to the trade balance, no ally will be spared.
Speaking in Brussels, Belgium on the first leg of his European trip, the U.S. president said a flurry of oil and gas deals had given Moscow far too much influence over the continent’s largest economy.
In particular, he singled out the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project as being especially "inappropriate."
“I think it is a very bad thing for NATO and I don’t think it should have happened and I think we have to talk to Germany about it. On top of that, Germany is just paying a little bit over 1 percent (on defense) … And I think that is inappropriate also,” he added. 'An attack on Germany and Russia'
Trump has long criticized Berlin and other NATO allies for “freeriding” on Washington’s defense capabilities. Currently only five of NATO’s 29 member states actually allocate the 2 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to military spending that they are formally committed to as part of the alliance. Those five are the U.S., the U.K., Greece, Estonia and Poland.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
He wasn’t alone. It was difficult to create a winning coalition when the Russian intelligentsia was almost totally Socialist of one stripe or the other. And the communists had men of genius in its leadership. This is a serious force when combined with utter ruthlessness with an organ devoted to eliminating opposition, the Cheka.
Anti-Soviet forces were going up against a highly disciplined force of fanatics and were running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
The fact of the matter is, though, that it *is* at the moment a country.
>>This is not the kind of fight we should be involved in
THAT we can agree upon.
Seems you have bought the Russian myth then. Russia was the one invading Sweden, but now it has turned the other way around in your mind. As for their many invasions there was a recent one you should remember, when Russia buddied up with Hitler and invaded Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania.
I do not buy myths only rent them. “The Great Northern War” was a complicated dynastic struggle.
It was set off by an invasion of Sweden by Russia, Denmark-Norway and several minor princes. The idea was to test the newly crowned King of Sweden, the young Charles XII. Charles more than proved his worth by initially defeating them all.
As to the Soviet invasions you reference all those regions-territories had been in and out of the Russian Empire so Hitler couldn’t resist going using them as a lure to draw Stalin into the alliance with him. Fortunately for the world he squandered perhaps the world’s greatest military machine when megalomania became uncontrollable.
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