Recently, the German and Russian railways signed a cooperation agreement for "development and project planning of the inventory of wagons".[1] The benefit was very one-sided: the partner in Moscow received "experience" from the German side, in how to operate high-speed rail lines. Several thousand kilometers of track have already been or are being laid between St. Petersburg and Moscow.[2] As the Russian partner declared, it wants also to be advised by the DB "at the conclusion of contracts on questions of supply" as to the necessary equipment - a request, leading via Berlin directly to Munich, where Siemens offers its ICE technology.
Subsidize
Moscow has already ordered eight Siemens units, with ten wagons each, and pays approximately 200 million Euros. Originally the transaction was valued at 1.5 billion Euros and was to encompass 60 units.[3] The contract was annulled by the Russian side because it felt it was being cheated. Rather than receiving property titles to the technical documentation, Moscow was to be left empty-handed. They are tired "of subsidizing the German industry", said the new Russian railroad director, Jakunin, as the contract was annulled.[4] Siemens countered with the Far East. The 60 Siemens units originally planned for Russia were sold to Beijing - for a billion Euros, about a one-third reduction to what Moscow was to have paid.
Certain Standard
Despite the mutual distrust and the obvious advantages for the German side, DB, and RZD launched the next business deal - a joint freight rail transport. The first container train made a test run already last November from Berlin to Moscow.[5] Since recently freight will be transported regularly and in a common enterprise.[6] The "EurasiaRailLogistics" wants to take over "the freight transport between Germany, Russia and China". Whereas Berlin hopes to integrate Moscow, to obtain overland access to the Chinese border, the Russian side is seeking technical and logistic cooperation with Germany to attain "a certain standard" [7] - and wants to sell the attained knowledge further for its own profit to third parties e.g. "in Asia, as in India and Iran". According to this concept, Moscow is an inferior partner to Germany, to then be content with the reutilization of the technical know-how.
East Asian Realm
In its eastward expansion, DB benefits from standards laid down by the EU and extends their effective sphere of application further. Therefore Germany's projects, concerning China, are embedded in Brussels' project planning for a "Trans-European Transport Network" (TEN). This deals with macro-planning for the construction industry (road, rail, sea), to make the transfer of high-quality goods from west to east more permeable and, on the return route, to transport raw materials for the core industries of the EU - above all in Germany. The EU estimates the required financial total at more than 400 billion Euros. As can be seen from the DB expansion strategies [8], the project is docked onto the routes, called "corridors" in the EU's TEN concept, and supported with subsidies, in the billions of Euros, from the EU member states.[9] According to the Berlin railway executive committee, it is particularly important to develop the "Corridor II." That is the route from Berlin into Russia's Yekaterinburg "with a connection, via the Transsib (Trans-Siberian Railway), to the East Asian realm" [10], thus to China. "Corridor III" is also significant for Berlin - the route plan extends from Berlin (via Dresden) to Kiev [11] and can there connect to the Russian rail system.
New Beginning
"Corridor IV" leading southeast - is likewise a favorite in Berlin, for getting "into shape" on EU financing.[12] This route links Berlin (via Nuremberg) with Istanbul. According to DB, Turkey is a "transit country", because it is suitable as an "export intersection for the Near East, the Middle East, as well as, for Central Asia". Following this logic the whole of Southeast Europe would consist of transit states, that must be available to German Far East ambitions as whistle stops. It is therefore not surprising that the DB's strategy papers point to substantial "infrastructure bottlenecks" in the offshore rail systems, particularly in "Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia/Montenegro". In order to eliminate these detected deficiencies, the DB is proposing "reform measures" to the states with the bottlenecks - to be carried out under DB's guidance. Relevant agreements, known in Berlin as "export" [13], have been concluded e.g. with Turkey. The German objective is a "forceful new beginning (...) free of historical encumbrances".
Hegemony
Along with German rail expansion, comes the total industrial rationalization of transportation logistics, comprising a valued volume of more than 500 billion Euros. Now that in the so-called transit countries, Berlin has "identified" a multiplicity of "technical, administrative, as well as, production/operational obstacles (...)", DB is further demanding that "the variety of legal norms" be eliminated,[14] "the more borders to be crossed on the same axle, the more urgently" this demand must be fulfilled. Berlin makes the assertion of being in possession of the most modern methods and thereby requires the "harmonization" of data exchange systems, to meet German norms - a German Industrial Standard (DIN) in rail transport. The corresponding Implantation of German control and technical methods, subjects the cooperating states to a material hegemony, which requires no military means, as long as the industrial penetration does not encounter resistance.