Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended the gas deals she made with Russia saying they helped German firms and kept the peace with Moscow, revealing the strategy in her memoirMerkel’s spirited defence of her actions and central role in European geopolitics were clearly made to challenge those who accused of having been too soft on Russia, leaving Germany dangerously reliant on cheap Russian gas, and sparking turmoil with her much-maligned open door migrantWars rage in Ukraine and...
While affirming Europe “has to protect its external borders,” in the book she reportedly stresses “wealth and the rule of law will always make Germany and Europe desirable destinations.” A display stand with copies of the book “Freiheit. Memories 1954 – 2021” by former Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Dussmann cultural department store in Berlin’s Friedrichstraße. The memoir is published in over 30 countries worldwide.
Nevertheless, she says that she was “right to make a point, to the end of my tenure, of preserving our contact with Russia”. On Nord Stream 2, which she approved after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, AFP reports she argues at the time it would have been difficult to get companies and gas users in Germany and in many E.U. member states to accept having to import more expensive liquefied natural gas from other sources.