Posted on 04/04/2022 9:18:05 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Germany will temporarily take control of the German subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom, the government has announced in a move it said was necessary to secure energy supply and critical infrastructure amid growing distrust between Germany and Russia in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
Energy Minister Robert Habeck said Germany's Bundesnetzagentur energy regulator would become the trustee of Gazprom Germania until September 30.
The move comes after Russia's state-owned Gazprom said it was withdrawing from Gazprom Germania on April 1.
Habeck justified the move by citing the current "unclear" legal structure behind Gazprom Germania and a breach of its obligation to inform German authorities of ownership-changes reporting regulations.
"The government is doing what is necessary to ensure security of supplies in Germany, and that includes not exposing energy infrastructures in Germany to arbitrary decisions by the Kremlin," Habeck said.
(Excerpt) Read more at rferl.org ...
“Temporary”
I wonder what Habeck’s pirate name is?
“Habeck justified the move by citing the current “unclear” legal structure behind Gazprom Germania and a breach of its obligation to inform German authorities of ownership-changes reporting regulations.”
Hate to inform Germany, but gas won’t come out of their end of the pipeline unless Russia puts it in first. So they best try to be nice to Russia, regardless of whether it means that Soros and the WEF get slowed down a bit...
Cool plan. How do they intend to force Russia to put gas into the other end of the line?
The term “Blockhead” for Krauts didn’t just come from nowhere. They either do things perfectly, or screw it up in ways you didn’t know were even possible.
Russia signed contracts.
Russia claims it is not at war in Ukraine, only a ‘special operation”
If Russia stops sending gas, it breaks its contract, it breaks its word, it is not trustworthy for business
I guess the bigger issue is - who has the most leverage?
Each side has something the other side wants.
Yeah, Germany doesn’t trust Russia anymore. So if Russia breaks the contract, Germany can eat more gas forming kraut and pull the gas out of their butt.
As long as they control the outlet, electricity will just keep coming out of the wall - right? Right…?
It’s just like the left in this country with farmers. Tax ‘em, regulate ‘em, take their water, who cares? People get their food from Target. Who needs farmers?
this is word-thinking. europe, including germany, has basically stolen russia foreign currency reserves in their jurisdiction. I don’t think any contract is valid under those circumstances.
in reality, this is a complicated geo-political issue with daily news which seems so convoluted I am not sure anyone here really knows what is going on. tomorrow’s headline may contradict this one.
There is more to it. The lucrative contracts the German consumers have is with that nationalized company, whereas the source of gas is still a former parent company, which doesn’t have any obligations before them anymore.
If they want gas, the nationalized company needs to buy it from Russia at the price Russia is going to ask and it won’t be a breach of contract on Russian side, even if they want five times more now.
Then the nationalized company is free to break contracts demanding more from the consumers, or distribute at loss, but the consumers need to blame the German government.
Anybody remembers “Atlas Shrugged”?
in other words this is in part a legal device to give the germans the ability to break pricing contracts they have to supply domestically?
It is inevitable, even though they are going to blame Russia for the price hikes. In my opinion the nationalization is a symbolic move. Gazprom withdrew from its German assets after Germany started to adopt a fiat making them fill the German storage to 90%. The Germans are now free to fill it with their farts or buy gas for rubles at whatever price Gazprom wants.
Brilliant! Place politicians, bureaucrats and appointees in charge of an international for profit company crucial to national well being and security.
What could possibly go wrong.....
At that point (before Germany took control), who owned those assets? Nobody? I do tend to agree with "symbolic", or at least mostly so.
Still a theft though. And no legal grounds for the Germans to demand that the old contracts fulfilled.
Kinda like what the German Nazis did with German Arms manufacturer Friedrich Krupp?
German and Uke Nazis are “not trustworthy for business”.
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