REUTERS
For Germany, it is very important to preserve economic cooperation with the Russian Federation, the expert noted.
It will not be easy for Germany to abandon the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline and sever its partnership with the Kremlin, while Kyiv will eventually have to determine their key foreign partners, according to a head of the Maidan Foreign Affairs Foundation, an expert on international affairs and former diplomat Bohdan Yaremenko.
The expert believes it is very important for Germany to maintain economic cooperation with the Russian Federation, which is a major market for its products, Glavred reports.
"Germans produce much more than they can consume, so they need to sell their products somewhere. At the same time, Germany produces extremely high-quality and expensive products, so not everyone can buy them. Russia has money, so it is a key partner for Germany," said the expert.
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Yaremenko believes that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will be completed, and this will have a number of negative consequences for Ukraine.
“After all, it turns out, the Germans are forced not only to introduce sanctions against Russia, but also to suffer from American sanctions because of Russia and because of the interests of Ukraine. For us, this will create very serious problems with Germany in the near future,” he said.
Yaremenko is convinced that Kyiv needs to determine its partners, since Ukraine supports both the U.S. sanctions against Germany due to the construction of the gas pipeline, and the European sanctions introduced against the Russian Federation.
"Today we call on Germany and the European Union to impose Russia sanctions because of the Krelmin's actions in the Azov and Black seas, but at the same time, we rejoice in U.S. sanctions against Germany. That's not how it happens. We will have to choose between partners and their interests, and this is very difficult choice," he concluded.
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Nord Stream 2 is the second gas pipeline, set to connect Russia with Germany via the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The more than 1,200 km route with the capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year costs EUR 9.5 billion. The project gets shared financing from Russian Gazprom and five European companies. Gazprom predicts that Nord Stream 2 will have been commissioned by the end of 2019.
Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia see the Nord Stream 2 as a threat to the European energy security. The United States also stands against its construction.
On December 11, the U.S. Congress adopted a resolution opposing the Nord Stream -2 pipeline.
On December 12, the European Parliament passed a resolution, also criticizing the project.