Posted on 01/29/2022 7:28:35 PM PST by elpadre
Former President Donald Trump said the US should not be involved in the Ukraine-Russian crisis, calling it a 'European problem' after Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to hold talks with Germany, France and Ukraine while Joe Biden said he would deploy troops to the area 'in the near term' without backing from NATO.
Speaking with conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Saturday, Trump said the US should keep out of Europe but doubted Germany could help broker a peace agreement due to its gas dependence with Russia through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline deal.
'They're getting their energy from Russia, so Russia has total control over Germany,' Trump said. 'And Germany's saying, 'Oh, we don't want to fight them.' They can't fight them.
'Russia owns Germany,' he reiterated.
The $11 million Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was designed to double the gas flowing directly from Russia to Germany, a project that has faced criticism in Europe and the US as it provides the Kremlin dangerous leverage over Europe.
Trump called it 'one of the dumbest moves I've ever seen,' and said he warned then-German Chancellor Angela Merkle of the implications.
'And I'm the one that brought that up. Nobody even knew about it,' Trump said. 'I used to talk about it all the time.
He added that when Germany agreed to the pipeline deal, he sent over a white flag to Merkle.
'It's a white flag of surrender,' Trump said. 'I told Angela, you're turning your whole country into Russia.'
Trump's comments come a day after Biden vowed to mobilize troops in the Eastern Europe without NATO's backing.
'I'll be moving troops to Eastern Europe and the NATO countries in the near term. Not too many,' Biden said as he got off Air Force One after a trip to Pittsburgh.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
and more:
“..Russian exports made up 30 per cent of Europe’s total gas supplies in 2010, but in the first half of 2021, it made up more than 45 per cent according to data gathered by Statista - with the main customers being Germany, Italy, France and Austria.
Despite that, Germany is pressing ahead with plans to mothball its nuclear plants this year - viewing them as damaging to the environment - despite multiple studies warning similar moves in the past have increased the country’s reliance on fossil fuels.
Mike Bradshaw, Professor of Global Energy at Warwick Business School, has said Russia has a tight grip on Europe’s energy market.
He said: ‘Europe is dependent on imports of Russian oil and gas, but Europe is also Russia’s most important market for those exports that are a critical source of income for the Russian Government. However, the Russian Government has been building up a ‘war chest’ in terms of financial reserves....”
Sounds like Brandon’s going rogue. He’s such an idiot he’ll end up unifying NATO and Russia against the U.S. /s
Russia is really bad, they aren't burying themselves in debt apparently. Too bad Putin doesn't go along with the program.
“Never underestimate FJB’s ability to eff things up”.
Obama was dead right on this one.
Bump. I think this is VERY important, and might be about one week from going critical.
Maybe.
Trump is correct.
Its absolutely correct what Trump said. And I remember him making those statements at that time.
There wont be a fight if Germany, France and the rest have any say.
Ukraine is screwed.
They wont attack while the games are going on in China.
That would step on China’s propaganda thunder.
Germany, et al. was dumb enough to give Putin control of their energy supply so they deserve whatever medicine Putin feels like handing out. Based on Soviet history and Putin’s own KGB history in East Germany, I’m sure he has a special hatred for Germans. German has only 1 card to play here and it’s “yessir, Mr. President Putin” for whatever he wants.
Putin bas been the most shrewd politician of the 21st Century excluding Obama’s brilliant Marxist revolution of the USA, which clearly wins him that status.
Biden is going to get us into a war to deflect from his failures. He will send conservative men and women to die all in an attempt to change the narrative. Don’t let your son or daughter go. Let him send the members of the LBQXYZ? team.
Seems like it
Ukraine screwed themselves, selling off many of their weapons to raise foreign cash reserves when the USSR broke up. Probably sorry they did that now...
What do Germany, France (or England, or the US) owe Ukraine? Could we focus on getting our assets/allies out of Afghanistan first?
Trump has been consistent for 30 + years on his foreign policy outlook
He kinda has a hands off approach. Not our problem.
Republicans need to object to the Biden war-footing deployment. That addled old will do something stupid and Boom.
Ukraine should had kept their nuclear weapons. In retrospect, they probably needed a strongman. Someone like Alexander Lukashenko to keep things intact. Instead Ukraine had too deal with corruption and it’s still a major issue there, obviously.
They may not have had any control over that, but they had control over the conventional weapons they sold. I don’t believe Russia itself left nukes behind in the new independent states created when the USSR broke up; if they didn’t remove them, they left Russian troops at the facilities.
This is massive desperation. He is literally what the Left claimed Trump was while POTUS.
From what I heard, Bill Clinton urged Ukraine to get rid of the nukes based there when he was president, telling Ukraine that he would protect them.
Big mistake.
Trump was the first and only President in my lifetime (I was born when Eisenhower was President) who did not involve the U.S. in a new foreign war.
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