• The measures represent a complete reversal of Germany’s post-Cold War Russia policy — which focused on pursuing economic ties rather than confrontation with Moscow — and mark a definitive end to the era of former Chancellor Angela Merkel.
• “We are living through a watershed era. And that means that the world afterwards will no longer the same as the world before. The core question is whether power is allowed to prevail over the law. Will we allow Putin to turn the clock back to the 19th century and the age of great powers? Or can we muster the strength to keep warmongers like Putin in check. That requires strength of our own. Yes, we fully intend to secure our freedom, our democracy and our prosperity.” — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Bundestag, February 27, 2022.
• The significance of the German U-turn cannot be overstated: Germany will become the biggest spender on defense in Europe.
• In a major policy reversal, the German government has also decided to suspend technical certification of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would double shipments of Russian natural gas to Germany by transporting the gas under the Baltic Sea.
• “Olaf Scholz is changing decades of German foreign policy in a single speech. Russia went too far and now Germany is waking up. Incredible.” — Marcel Dirsus, German political scientist.
• “I have to say I don’t recognize Europe as it responds to Putin’s gangsterism against #Ukraine… all of a sudden I see the Continent grow a spine. Way to go!” — Andrew Michta, veteran transatlantic security analyst.
• “Watching Scholz in Bundestag today is watching decades of German foreign policy change in a few minutes before your eyes.” — Andrew Gray, politics editor for Politico.
• “Putin knew well why he invested so much in friendly relations. Germany was open to that. But the attack on Ukraine changed everything. Comes certainly as a shock to Putin.” — Ulrich Speck, German foreign policy analyst.
• “It is hard to overestimate how much Putin’s attack on Ukraine changed Germany. Less than a week ago Nord Stream 2 was still alive, delivering lethal weapons to Ukraine taboo & cutting Russia out of Swift out of the question. Putin’s invasion changed Germany. Turning point.” — Michael Knigge, German journalist.
• “Germany basically doing what Donald Trump demanded that they do — to widespread ridicule — for the four years of his Presidency. I know it galls people to hear it, but Trump was right about some very big things.” — John McGuirk, Irish political commentator.

• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has announced a paradigm shift in German defense and energy policies in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that Germany will substantially increase defense spending and take immediate measures to reduce its energy dependence on Russia.

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It is the West’s wacko environmentalists who handed Russian President Vladimir Putin the leverage and money to invade Crimea in 2014 and Ukraine this week.

Without these wackos, Putin would be just another gangster in charge of a crumbling country, and maybe one on the verge of a revolution to depose him.

But the facts are the facts are the facts, and the facts are these… Thanks to the West’s environmentalists, those smug greenies who are more concerned with carbon output than world peace, this gangster controls much of the energy going to the European Union (E.U.). Per Statista, here are the countries most dependent on Russia for natural gas. The percentages tell us just how dependent:

• North Macedonia (100 percent)
• Finland (94 percent)
• Bulgaria (74 percent)
• Slovakia (70 percent)
• Germany (49 percent)
• Italy (46 percent)
• Poland (40 percent)
• France (24 percent).

It gets worse.

As of 2019, a full 27 percent of the European Union’s crude oil, 41 percent of its natural gas, and 47 percent of its solid fuel (mostly coal) come from Russia.

Why?

Well, it’s very simple. Russia is not stupid. Putin is not stupid. He drills and digs and fracks while Western countries pat themselves on the back for closing coal mines, refusing oil leases, and shuttering nuclear power plants. And in doing so, even at the expense of giving the gangster Putin leverage over them, these Western countries pat themselves on the back for decreasing their carbon footprints and going green…

Russian President Vladimir Putin (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, TASS News Agency Pool Photo via AP)

Meanwhile, Putin is given control over the very thing that allows Western Civilization to remain Western Civilization: energy.

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