Monday, May 01, 2006

Poland Up In Arms Over Russian Pipeline

Poland, always a little touchy over deals between Russia and Germany, at least since that 1939 fiasco, is quite upset over the fact that Germany still wants to go ahead with a pipeline that will take Russian gas under the Baltic Sea. This, of course, will leave their neighbor in the middle in the cold and more vulnerable to Russian whims, similarly to Ukraine and Georgia. The previous German chancellor already got rewarded for playing along with Uncle Vladimir, but looks like Angela Merkel is also not willing to drop the agreement.
The Baltic pipeline doesn't seem to make much economic sense because it will cost more to build. So what's the deal here? Hey, aren't those pesky Social Democrats in Merkel's cabinet? Oh, yeah. And never mind that Poland is now part of the EU and certainly a much more stable partner than the Russians. Good neighbors.

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