Constraints, what constraints? We love constraints! And what’s a monopoly, between friends? Germans love board games of all kinds, you know, and they’ll play monopoly with anybody, as long as he or she’s a Russian, I guess.

So whatcha gonna do? Achieving full energy independence isn’t an option for Germany and, being that the Germans won’t go nuclear or burn more coal (neither options are allowed for some strange reason) they’re going to have to be happy with their gas dependency on Russia (it’s around 40% at the moment).

And that’s why Angela Merkel, like that guy before her, believes that it’s good that the planned Nord Stream gas pipeline will bypass “veto players” like Poland and supply Germany directly with gas. It’s better for Europe that way, or something. Schroeder’s “unprecedented mixing of political and private commercial interests” was an awful, dreadful and despicable thing, Angie will tell you, but we’ll take that Russian gas all the same, no strings, I mean constraints, attached.

“The Nord Stream pipeline project was initially agreed to in late 2005 by then-Russian President Putin and former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who signed the deal during his last days in office.”