Free Republic

BRUSSELS — President Donald Trump wasted no time in escalating his verbal attacks on Germany in the opening leg of his European tour. Seated across from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at breakfast Wednesday morning ahead of the alliance’s meeting, Trump expanded his criticism beyond how little – in his view – Europe’s most powerful economy spends on defense to target where they buy their energy. “Germany is totally controlled by Russia,” he said. “They will be getting between 60 and 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline.”

BERLIN (AP) – Germany’s economy minister said Sunday that the country will limit the use of gas for electricity production amid concerns about possible shortages caused by a reduction in supplies from Russia. Germany has been trying to fill its gas storage facilities to capacity ahead of the winter months, when gas is more urgently needed as a heating fuel.

Germany has said it will stop importing oil from Russia by the end of the year. "We will halve oil by the summer and will be at zero by the end of the year, and then gas will follow," said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. Germany currently buys a quarter of its oil and 40% of its gas from Russia and has warned that it could face a recession if supplies suddenly stopped. The US has already banned Russian oil imports, while the UK plans to phase them out by the end of the year. The EU has said it...

Pressure was mounting on Germany to up its game over the war in Ukraine on Tuesday as Kyiv snubbed the country's president and Chancellor Olaf Scholz was accused of a weak response to the crisis. On a visit to Poland, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier admitted he had offered to visit Ukraine with other EU leaders, but Kyiv had told him he was not welcome right now. "I was prepared to do this, but apparently, and I must take note of this, this was not wanted in Kyiv," Steinmeier told reporters. Steinmeier, a former foreign minister, has faced growing criticism since Russia...

Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing warned that cutting off imports of Russian gas would have severe consequences for Germany's economy and would drive it into a recession. Calls for a ban on Russian gas imports have been growing since atrocities committed by Russian troops in Bucha and other towns around Kyiv were revealed over the past few days, especially after the three Baltic countries announced they had cut Russian gas imports starting April 1. But according to Sewing, there would be "a further deterioration of the situation if there's a stop to imports or deliveries of Russian oil...

BERLIN, March 30 (Reuters) - Germany will continue to pay for Russian gas in euros or dollars, a government spokesman said, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin had told the German chancellor nothing would change for European partners despite his plan for rouble payments. Russia has said that because of Western financial sanctions over Ukraine, it plans to require payment for its energy exports - especially the gas that Germany depends on - in roubles rather than the usual euros or dollars from April 1. In a phone call between the leaders, Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that nothing...

The circumstances of the death of the Deputy General Director of the Unified Settlement Center of Gazprom for Corporate Security, whose body was found in the prestigious village of Leninskoye in the Vyborg District of the Leningrad Region, are being established. A note was found nearby, law enforcement officials told 47news. A month earlier, in the same village, the body of a top manager of another division from Gazprom's orbit was found. Both of the now deceased previously worked at Gazprom Transgaz. As it became known to 47news, in the early morning of February 25, the police received a message...

Germany is considering reopening some of its decommissioned coal power plants in the hopes of getting a handle on its ongoing energy crisis. The reopening of shuttered plants is seen as an option as the country struggles to ween itself off of its addiction to Russian fossil fuels. While authorities have already rejected plans of delaying the decommissioning of the remainder of its nuclear power stations, a new plan involving either delaying the shut down of coal fire plants that are still in operation, or the re-opening of plants that have previously been terminated, is now on the cards. According...

Multiple reports Monday hinted the White House is weighing a trip for President Joe Biden to Europe amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The plan, which is still being finalized, calls for Biden to meet with other leaders from the NATO alliance in Brussels on March 23, said three of the sources as cited by Reuters.

Vulnerable Democrat Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) appeared to go on a tirade against parents taking issue with what their children are learning in school, calling their concerns “made-up cultural bullshit” stemming from a “fringe movement.” In the video, exclusively obtained by Breitbart News, Malinowski was asked at a town hall event what Congress was doing to “protect educators, and our students and their identity.” “One of the crazy things happening in America right now is we’ve got a political movement that says they care about kids, because the way they express that care is by banning books,” Malinowski replied. “And...

WASHINGTON - A U.S. official said Russia asked China for military equipment to use in its invasion of Ukraine, a request that heightened tensions about the ongoing war ahead of a Monday meeting in Rome between top aides for the U.S. and Chinese governments. In advance of the talks, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan bluntly warned China to avoid helping Russia evade punishment from global sanctions that have hammered the Russian economy. "We will not allow that to go forward," he said. The prospect of China offering Russia financial help is one of several concerns for President Joe...

Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), a Democrat who has consistently opposed measures to make America energy independent again, took thousands in donations from a lobbyist for the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Gas prices surged 22 percent in the last two weeks to hit the most expensive ever recorded, $4.43 per gallon, which exceeded the record from July 2008, the prior all-time high, by 32 cents per gallon. So the discovery of Malinowski accepting thousands in donations from a Russian pipeline lobbyist could have severe repercussions for the vulnerable Democrat, who has opposed American energy independence. As Breitbart News reported in...

Merkel's Legacy as Russian Invasion Lays Up to the final hours before Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, former chancellor Angela Merkel had been touted as the person favored by Germans to try to talk President Vladimir Putin out of the conflict. But as Russian bombs fell on Ukrainian cities, a shadow has fallen on Merkel's 16 years in office, with some observers now questioning if her detente policies with Putin had in fact left Germany, and Europe, vulnerable. Once hailed as the leader of the free world, the veteran center-right leader has been accused by some of increasing Europe's...

Berlin (AFP) – Up to the final hours before Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, former chancellor Angela Merkel had been touted as the person favoured by Germans to try to talk President Vladimir Putin out of the conflict. But as Russian bombs fell on Ukrainian cities, a shadow has fallen on Merkel's 16 years in office, with some observers now questioning if her detente policies with Putin had in fact left Germany, and Europe, vulnerable. Once hailed as the leader of the free world, the veteran centre-right leader has been accused by some of increasing Europe's reliance on Russian...

Germany has emerged as the main barrier to tougher sanctions against Russia, threatening to spark a rift in western efforts to punish the Kremlin.Europe’s largest economy is the main power resisting attempts to add Sberbank to a list of Russian financial institutions cut off from the Swift payments system, Bloomberg reports.Sberbank, which is Russia’s largest lender, was left off the initial list as part of a decision to protect energy-related transactions, but calls are now mounting for the EU to tighten its sanctions.It’s not Germany’s only area of resistance, either. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has publicly opposed sanctions targeting Russia’s...

At a time when US officials are saying virtually every day that the US is in “active discussions” to ban Russian oil imports, Germany’s economy minister said that while he regrets the country is still dependent on imports from Moscow, he warned against a comprehensive ban on energy imports from Russia. As Dutesche Welle reports, “Germany is currently still dependent on Russian fossil fuels”, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Thursday; he spoke out against a ban on energy imports from Russia in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “I would not advocate an embargo on Russian imports of...

VIDEORemember how the liberal media kept screeching that President Trump was Putin's puppet? Well, the reality was quite the opposite because President Trump OPPOSED the one thing most important to Vladimir Putin, namely the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. A project that President Trump knew would make Western Europe dependent on Russian energy which is why he imposed sanctions upon it.Oh, and does anybody out there really think Russia would have invaded Ukraine if President Trump were still in the White House? But, hey, at least we no longer have mean tweets.

BERLIN–German oil and gas company Wintershall Dea AG, one of the investors in the now frozen Nord Stream 2 pipeline, said it would write off its 1 billion euro, or $1.1 billion, financing in the project and won't pursue new energy ventures in Russia. Germany last week halted the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 project that would have doubled the capacity of an existing pipeline traveling along a similar route and linking Russian gas fields directly to Germany. The project was backed by a number of Western energy players, including Shell PLC, which said on Monday that it would end...

Short of an official request, the White House is now encouraging U.S. drillers to produce more crude. The White House has received a lot of pushback in recent days for not tapping what many see as at least a partial solution to the headache that is high oil prices—U.S. shale. In a move that likely angered his environment-conscious base, the White House has issued a muted request for U.S. oil companies to increase crude oil production in the wake of high crude oil and gasoline prices. Though words are different than deeds—and President Joe Biden’s deeds have been decisively anti-fossil...

Think about the madness of this… Joe Biden is running around trying to look tough, hitting Russia with sanctions over Vladimir Putin’s obscene invasion of Ukraine. But at the same time, we pay Russia in the vicinity of $70 million per day for oil imports. In other words, during these seven days of Putin’s criminal war against Ukraine, we’ve sent this same Putin during those same seven days close to a half-billion dollars! What the hell is going on? On the one hand, Biden claims to be crippling Vlad with sanctions, while on the other hand, we’re slipping him $70...