We have an old Chinese saying that the gods and immortals fight and the little devils suffer, which means that when two large powerful groups fight each other, it is often not the two of them who really suffer and are really damaged, but the others who watch the hilarity or are wrapped up in.
As of today, the two sides have basically completely torn their faces, and Russian President Putin has given an impassioned speech for more than an hour, and then announced the recognition of the independence of the two eastern Ukrainian states, while on the other hand, the Western countries led by the United States have now begun to impose comprehensive sanctions.
But of course, in fact, since 2014, in the past 8 years, sanctions have been a main theme, and it is clear that so far western countries have not been able to come up with more effective sanctions. So in this crisis that lasted for more than two months, which side really suffered, of course, was Ukraine, who made you the country involved.
So far, Ukraine has really suffered territorial divisions, two more states have been taken away except for Crimea, and it is clear that Ukraine's Western allies are indifferent, and they will not help Ukraine send troops to really bring these two states back except for verbal protests and economic sanctions that have little effect at all.
The other thing that has been damaged is Germany, which has little to do with the crisis, and the only sanction that the West seems to be able to really handle now is the German chancellor's recent announcement that Germany will suspend approval of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline.
That is to say, this tens of billions of dollars, construction of up to 10 years of gas pipeline after the final completion of the still useless, former Russian President Medvedev after hearing the German statement, he can only helplessly say that he welcomes Europeans into a new world, a new world with extremely high oil prices and gas prices.
Here Europeans will pay more than 2,000 euros for every 1,000 cubic meters of gas, what can the Russians say, after all, Germany is the ultimate natural gas user, people are willing to self-destruct the Great Wall to cut off the pipeline, Russia can not sell the gas in a hurry.
Germany is the fourth largest country in the world economy, in fact, it is also the most economically powerful country on the European continent today, in the past ten years, Germany has been the core country of the European Union, but such a powerful industrial country it has a short board, where its short board is, is its energy problem.
Many small countries in Europe actually have this problem, taking Germany as an example, the territory is not large, there are more than 80 million people, the industry is extremely developed, but because there is no vast hinterland, so energy has always been a big problem plaguing Germany's development. Especially after entering the 21st century, the world is talking about carbon reduction, carbon neutrality, carbon peak, European people's brain circuits are clearer, for them development is important, but environmental protection is more important.
To take a simple example, more than two years ago, Tesla built a factory in the mainland, and the Shanghai Gigafactory was completed and delivered that year, which completely solved the production capacity problem that had plagued Tesla for many years, and of course, the value of Tesla CEO Musk soared from more than $20 billion to $300 billion, the new world's richest man.
However, musk planned two super factories at the same time, one in Shanghai, China, to see the Asian market, and the other in Germany to see the entire European market. But now, more than two years later, the Shanghai Gigafactory has been a huge success, and more than 10 second- and third-tier cities in China are crying and shouting that Tesla will build a second gigafactory in the city, and the Tesla gigafactory in Germany has not yet started.
The reason is very simple, Tesla's gigafactory in Germany has been reprimanded by the local environmental protection department, today said that the noise is polluted, tomorrow said that the water source is polluted, the day after tomorrow said that Tesla built a factory in the German Black Forest to disturb the hibernating small animals in the forest such as snakes, so stumbling for a few years, the German gigafactory now does not even have a shadow.
Some people say that you may be wrong, Germany is the country of cars, Germany has many car brands, what Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, German car manufacturers are privately tripping Tesla, do not want it to build a factory smoothly. This explanation sounds quite reasonable, but in fact, everyone misunderstands the German axis, what state the German can axis, obviously Tesla Gigafactory can bring huge employment and economic profits to the country, but people are stuck in the environmental protection problem does not let you build a factory smoothly.
Not only that, but on the issue of energy, we can thoroughly see the axis of the Germans, which is obviously a country that lacks energy, but in recent years, Germany has shut down almost all the thermal power plants and nuclear power plants in its territory. Not environmentally friendly, the Germans said that you still use fossil energy to burn coal to generate too many carbon emissions, too environmentally unfriendly, so you can not use coal to generate electricity in the future, thermal power plants are all shut down.
What about nuclear energy? Nuclear energy is clean energy, the Germans said, do you know, more than 10 years ago, Japan after the 311 earthquake did not produce a nuclear leak, this nuclear power plant it is not necessarily safe, so Germany has stopped all the domestic nuclear power plants, and even the previous approval of the construction is also to be laid down.
And the German government also has to lose a lot of money to manufacturers, so what kind of new energy do the Germans expect to use, people say we can use wind energy, we can use water energy, we can use solar energy these green energy. The problem is that although these energy sources are clean, their output is unstable, and it cannot support Germany's powerful industry, so to this day Germany's main energy source is still natural gas from Russia.
Relatively speaking, natural gas is still relatively environmentally friendly, the output of natural gas is very stable, it has only one disadvantage, that is, why does it come from Russia? Originally, every year Russia transported a lot of natural gas to Germany through the channel buried in the underground of Ukraine and Poland, but Russia felt that this business was doing a bit of a loss, obviously I was a natural gas producer, but I wanted to give them billions of dollars every year in order to use the channel underground in Poland and Ukraine.
Why can't I build a passage myself? Even if the passage cost tens of billions of dollars, the long-term view of the transaction can be drawn, which is now the most controversial Nord Stream II. For Russia, many Western European countries led by Germany are very short of energy, I rush to build a passage in front of your house, I don't need you to take money, natural gas from me will continue to flow through this pipeline to you, and even the price I can be cheaper, because I don't need to pay sky-high transit fees, this is a good deal.
For the Germans, Nord Stream II is indeed a major positive, who does not want to be able to buy energy cheaply and steadily, but the Americans do not do it, from the north stream two to put forward the motion, the Americans have been moving sideways, the United States has repeatedly warned Germany that you can not agree to nord stream two, you can not increase the purchase of natural gas from Russia, if so, you will be kidnapped by Russian energy.
You want your energy to come from Russia, so once we go to war one day, won't your act of buying natural gas be the same as the enemy, or how can Russia cut you out of gas? But the problem is that the Americans forgot that even without Nord Stream II, germany is not buying Russian natural gas now, in the final analysis, the Americans have their own small calculations.
On the one hand, the United States does not want Russia to make a lot of money by selling a lot of energy, which is obviously not conducive to curbing Russia's development, and on the other hand, the Americans are also worried that if Germany buys natural gas with Russia for a long time, then the relationship between the two countries will become more good, and if the most economically developed country on the European continent and the most militarily developed country on the european continent join hands, it will definitely be a major challenge for the United States.
It should be known that Germany has been run by former Chancellor Angela Merkel for the past decade, and it is clear that Merkel and Putin have a very good personal relationship, which also makes German-Russian relations often have a positive interaction, which is like a big enemy for the United States. Coupled with the success of the Shale Oil Revolution in the United States in the past two years, the United States has slowly transformed into an energy exporter, so the Americans also want to consider for their own energy providers, is it possible that you should not buy natural gas from Russia and buy from the United States?
I can use the ship to transport to Germany, nothing more than a little freight, friends sell you a little more expensive, opponents sell you cheaper gas, Germany which one should you buy? In August and September last year, before Merkel officially retired, in fact, Germany and Russia had a very good relationship, and under Merkel's strong support, the United States could only withdraw many sanctions on Nord Stream II, which was finally officially completed at the end of last year.
However, for the cunning Americans, there is no plan and another plan, and since I can't sanction Nord Stream II, I can only watch it build, but I can use another trick, so the situation in Ukraine has changed sharply since the end of last year. The US media has been hyping up for two months, the Russian army may level Kiev and flatten Ukraine at any time and anywhere, the war is on the verge of breaking out, and finally after more than two months, the two sides are tearing their faces.
In order to protect itself or to confront the United States, Russia finally announced its recognition of the independence of the two eastern Ukrainian states, while at the same time the Western world began to impose comprehensive sanctions on Russia. Of course, in this state, Germany can only have to announce the suspension of the approval of Nord Stream II, the pipeline is built, but the day of ventilation is far away, and even some American politicians are clamoring that in the future they will turn Nord Stream II into a pile of garbage.
The US sanctions on Nord Stream II for many years have finally achieved its purpose through the situation in Ukraine, but it is a pity that Germany, ukraine or Russia, there is a conflict between them, does it have anything to do with me? This winter was cold enough, due to the lack of storage of natural gas in European countries, the price of natural gas soared, and some German people have begun to chop wood for fire.
In such a state, russia has built Nord Stream 2 to supply you with natural gas and solve your urgent needs, but it is a good thing that the United States has stirred up yellow. In the whole Ukrainian crisis, except for Ukraine, I am afraid that the biggest damage so far is Germany, I wonder what kind of heavy blow such an energy pattern will be for the Future German economy?
On the other hand, Germany's neighbor France, people are very comfortable in this crisis, why? The French are not as shafty as the Germans, the French have long realized the importance of nuclear energy, to this day more than 50% of the country's electricity supply is nuclear power plants, and France even has surplus electricity exported to other countries, and even just a few days ago, French President Macron said that France will change its previous energy strategy.
France has pushed the European Union to recognize nuclear energy as also green energy, so in the future France will invest tens of billions of euros, not only not to shut down the nuclear power plant, but to build more nuclear power plants, so for the French to sanction Russia, not to sanction it, to buy its natural gas, not to buy it, anyway, ukraine This crisis is not painful for France. But for Germany, it must unconditionally support the United States on the side of the United States, and even in the future it can only buy American natural gas at a high price.