Contents tagged with Germany

  • German Foreign Minister to fly to Moscow and Kyiv for talks

    On Friday 18 January, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas will travel to Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, and then to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, Deutsche Welle reports.

    In Kyiv, the ministers will discuss the situation in the Donbas and the progress of reforms in Ukraine. No other details of Maas’s visit to Ukraine were given.

    In Moscow, the central topic of the negotiations will be the future of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces …

  • US Ambassador to Germany explains why Putin needs Nord Stream 2

    The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project was developed solely in order to create an alternative route for transporting Russian gas to Europe that does not involve Ukraine, US Ambassador to Berlin Richard Grenell told the Rheinische Post in an interview.

    “The problem with Nord Stream 2 is that it is not an economic project. It was developed for only one reason: to create an alternative route for transporting Russian gas on the way to Europe that does not pass through Ukraine. And so the issue is, …

  • Media: Berlin tells German companies not to respond to US Ambassador's letters threatening them with sanctions

    The German Foreign Ministry recommended that German companies BASF and Uniper refrain from responding to the letters from US Ambassador Richard Grenell which warned them of US sanctions for participating in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, reported Handelsblatt newspaper on Sunday.

    According to the newspaper’s sources, the companies asked the Foreign Ministry how to better respond to Grenell's censure. The Ministry recommended that the companies abstain from responding to …

  • Germany calls on Russia to take a prohibited cruise missile out of service

    To maintain the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), Moscow should take out of service the cruise missile that violates agreements with the USA, stated German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Welt reports. 

    "Moscow has the key to maintaining the INF Treaty. If Russia wants to maintain the treaty, it should disarm so that it could be checked,” Maas said and added that "Russia violated the treaty by developing and putting a prohibited cruise missile [9M729 missile] into service." 

    Maas …

  • Gazprom CEO: Nord Stream 2 will be operational by January 2020

    Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller is convinced that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will start supplying Europe with gas by January 1, 2020, Interfax reports. 

    “We are working according to the plans that were approved from the very beginning. The planned start for gas shipments is January 1, 2020,” Miller said. 

    Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin also said that he is prepared to work no matter how the situation develops with the US. 

    “We are working constantly under these circumstances. Our job is risk management,” …

  • European Commission: construction of Nord Stream 2 pipeline is hard to stop

    US President Donald Trump’s criticism of the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is not a reason to stop the project, stated European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources Günther Oettinger on December 28. He said that any attempts to prevent the construction will encounter serious opposition as the construction is already underway. 

    Trump criticized Berlin for supporting the $11 billion gas pipeline. In July, he accused Germany of being Moscow's “hostage” because of the …

  • OSCE Secretary General believes new aggravation between Russia and Ukraine is highly possible

    Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung reports that the Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Thomas Greminger stated that Russia might continue providing military assistance to the territories of Donbas which are not under Ukraine’s control. 

    He believes that the aggravation is a real possibility in the annexed Crimea or on the line of demarcation with the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics. 

    According to Greminger, the political will to reconcile the …

  • Media: Poland is concerned by the outflow of Ukrainian migrant workers 

    About 500,000 Ukrainian migrant workers could migrate from Poland to Germany, negatively affecting the country’s economy, the Polish Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers told the newspaper Die Welt on Sunday, December 23. About two million Ukrainians live in Poland; most of them are migrant workers. 

    "According to a moderate scenario that we consider realistic, five hundred thousand Ukrainians will leave the Polish market. The worst-case scenario suggests that there will be twice as many,” …

  • The USA calls on Germany to abandon Nord Stream 2 pipleline

    The United States welcomed recent steps by the European Union to hold Russia responsible for aggression against Ukraine, US Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino stated on the US State Department website on Sunday, December 16. Washington supports the resolution of the European Parliament calling for the cancellation of the Nord Stream 2 project.

    “The European Parliament’s December 12 resolution reiterates the importance of Ukraine’s role in the European energy supply network and condemns the …

  • Putin's ID found in German intelligence archives

    Russian President Vladimir Putin’s identity card has been found in the archives of the Ministry of State Security of the GDR (Stasi), reports the Bild newspaper.

    According to the newspaper, Putin was the Stasi employee until the end of the GDR’s existence. The certificate was discovered in the archives “personnel and qualification” department in Dresden. It was issued on December 31, 1985, and was extended quarterly until the end of 1989. The newspaper notes that this document has Putin's …