{"id":11572,"date":"2018-12-10T19:45:30","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T03:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=11572"},"modified":"2018-12-10T19:45:30","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T03:45:30","slug":"putins-latest-ukraine-stunt-may-blow-up-in-his-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/putins-latest-ukraine-stunt-may-blow-up-in-his-face\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin&#8217;s latest Ukraine stunt may blow up in his face"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory in The Hill<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Germany postures itself as the conscience of Europe. It takes in floods of refugees and scolds those who do not. It claims to guard European unity against the nation-state and ridicules the United States for electing a real estate developer as president.<\/p>\n<p>But Germany, the self-declared paragon of European values, is also Germany Inc., the land of the \u201cPutin Versteher\u201d (Understander). Germany Inc. is poised to give the Kremlin its greatest \u201cpipeline politics\u201d victory.<\/p>\n<p>The $10 billion Nord Stream 2 (NS2) pipeline has the necessary German approvals. Once in operation, NS2 will make Germany Europe\u2019s hub of cheap Russian gas.<\/p>\n<p>Germany\u2019s Putin Versteher echoed Putin\u2019s claim that NS2 is \u201cundoubtedly absolutely free from politics \u2026 a purely commercial project.\u201d This claim is not true. NS2 is designed to split Europe in two, while imposing considerable economic losses on Ukraine, whose failure is a top Putin priority.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/opinion\/energy-environment\/420537-putins-latest-ukraine-stunt-may-blow-up-in-his-face\">Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory in The Hill Germany postures itself as the conscience of Europe. It takes in floods of refugees and scolds those who do not. It claims to guard European unity against the nation-state and ridicules the United States for electing a real estate developer as president. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1169,929,375,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-30E","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11661,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/merkel-salvages-nord-stream-but-is-putin-losing-russias-gas-monopoly\/","url_meta":{"origin":11572,"position":0},"title":"Merkel Salvages Nord Stream, But Is Putin Losing Russia&#8217;s Gas Monopoly?","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory in Forbes The European Union took a first step with its February 8 vote towards turning Russia\u2019s gas monopoly, Gazprom, from an instrument of Russian power politics into a\u00a0regulated utility, deprived of its monopoly power.\u00a0In an odd twist, Germany, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;European Union&quot;","block_context":{"text":"European Union","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/european-union\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11821,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/is-russia-preparing-a-gas-nuclear-option\/","url_meta":{"origin":11572,"position":1},"title":"Is Russia Preparing A Gas Nuclear Option?","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 14, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory published\u00a0by\u00a0Forbes Vladimir Putin is noted for taking surprise action, which confronts his victims with a fait accompli. They must then either accept the new unfavorable status quo or react in a way that they would consider too risky. Putin has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Russia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Russia","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/russia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12641,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/navalny-poisoning-just-a-bump-in-the-road-for-nord-stream-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":11572,"position":2},"title":"Navalny Poisoning Just A Bump In The Road For Nord Stream 2","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory published\u00a0by\u00a0Forbes Trying to figure whither Nord Stream 2 (hereafter NS2) \u2013 the undersea gas pipeline from Russia to Germany \u2013 is akin to solving five complicated jigsaw puzzles at once. Competing interests, changing legal foundations, and momentum all make it\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12917,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/do-bidens-tough-new-sanctions-give-putin-nord-stream-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":11572,"position":3},"title":"Do Biden&#8217;s &#8216;tough new sanctions&#8217; give Putin Nord Stream 2?","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"An article by my Hoover colleague Dr. Paul Gregory in The Hill Western\u00a0media\u00a0is greeting the Biden administration\u2019s Russian sanctions as \u201csignaling a tougher stance on Russia than under former President Donald Trump.\u201d\u00a0Vladimir Putin\u00a0likely thinks otherwise. It looks as if the Biden administration has blinked on Putin\u2019s key foreign policy objective\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8716,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/dont-trust-putin-in-the-mideast\/","url_meta":{"origin":11572,"position":4},"title":"Don\u2019t Trust Putin in the Mideast","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\u00a0\/\/ National Review Online Contrary to the principles of American foreign policy of the last 70 years, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry tacitly invited Russia to \u201chelp\u201d monitor things in the Middle East. Now they are learning that there are lots of Middle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Russia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Russia","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/russia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"(Mikhail Klimentiev\/Pressphotos\/Getty)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/vladimir-putin-coalition-r-500x500.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8887,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-decline-of-modern-germany\/","url_meta":{"origin":11572,"position":5},"title":"The Decline of Modern Germany","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Tribune Media Services Germany\u2019s political stability and economic sway have until recently earned Chancellor Angela Merkel unprecedented global influence and power. Postwar Germany has become the financial powerhouse of Europe and a model nation. Give credit to German hard work and competency for the country\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/map_Germany_300.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11572"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11576,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11572\/revisions\/11576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}