MOSCOW, February 15. /TASS/. The masterminds of the Nord Stream explosions tried to finally resolve the "German gas issue" in order to prevent Berlin from playing any independent role on the world stage, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a working meeting with the heads of foreign media bureaus accredited in Russia.
"The pipeline explosions were sort of final solution of the German gas issue," he said. "They were an attempt to resolve the German issue precisely the way some are trying to finally resolve the ‘Russian issue’: to never let Germany play any independent role in the foreseeable future. The main thing was to prevent Germany from feeling it was in an energy comfort zone and to prevent Germany from starting to receive gas through these two pipelines, which were financed by Russian, German, Austrian and Italian companies."
Lavrov believes that "Germany was not just humiliated, it was put in its place of a satellite of the United States, which will decide whether it will be able to ensure its economic development and meet the social needs of its citizens by using gas coming through the gas pipeline which, in part, it had paid for."
The Nord Stream incident fits in well with the so-called new order, based on the rules that the United States determines, Lavrov said. "They (the Americans - TASS) don't give a damn about what hardships many countries, including their direct allies, will have to endure," he stressed.
He drew attention to numerous studies on the history of Europe, which confirmed that "whenever Russia and Germany had normal relations and were building joint projects in the economy, in logistics, and even in military affairs, Europe lived more calmly - to the annoyance of those who wished to command Europe from across the ocean or from across the English Channel, which was probably even more relevant at many stages of historical development."
"So they did not let Germany grow as a leading European power, primarily thanks to low-price, reliable Russian energy sources at absolutely acceptable, competitive prices that would ensure the growth of the German economy," he concluded.