Strategic Projects
JEKATERINBURG Berlin and Moscow are cooperating in the establishment of a group of states which will, on a case by case basis, oppose the USA in order to achieve its economic and political interests. During the consultations between the German and Russian governments in Jekaterinburg, agreements were reached on a series of projects. These will not only strengthen the economic integration of Russia but will also increase military collaboration.
Strategic investments
German economic influence will be strengthened considerably with more than a dozen investment projects. The agreements concluded by the German business world, as well as the declarations of intent concerning ,,strategic projects"within the framework of the meeting, include about seven billion Euro for the coming years. With these actions the companies follow Berlin's endeavors to employ ,,strategic investments"in Russia in order to tighten its relations with Germany. Daimler-Chrysler executive, Mangold, who chairs the ,,Ost-Ausschuss"(Committee East) of the German business community, explains that ,,Russia is in the center of interest of German enterprises". At the preliminary stage of the consultations in Jekaterinburg, the Russian economic ministry noticed a 30 percent increase in German investments this year; Putin labeled Germany, with its trade volume of 24 billion Euro this year, as ,,Russia's most important trade partner". 1)
Russia's integration into Germany's global power strategies progresses as well. The Federal Government announced that in questions of foreign policy a ,,great degree of consensus"exists. This specifically refers to further action in the Near East, where Berlin and Moscow want to assert their own economic and political interests over those of the USA. In addition, the establishment of the German consulate general in Kaliningrad, requested by Berlin for a number of years, has finally been arranged.
Military cooperation
Berlin and Moscow will also continue to improve existing military collaboration. Germany is the first NATO member which is permitted in the future to complete military transports over Russian territory; in the future German tanks and soldiers will be transported to Afghanistan through Russia. In addition, Schröder and Putin signed a project which provides for the modernization of the Russian nuclear armed forces. 2)In the framework of this 1.5 billion project, financed by the German State, German businesses will participate in the disposal of nuclear submarines and the construction of a chemical weapons disposal facility; thus providing access to the sovereign region of Murmansk which, until now, had been prohibited. Previously the Russian president had threatened NATO and, along with it, the USA with a ,,radical change"of Russian military strategy and had announced a modernization of Russian nuclear forces with a new generation of strategic rockets with multiple nuclear war heads. In addition, Putin announced, on the occasion of the German-Russian meeting, that Russia reserves the right of preventive strikes.
Awakening memories
The increased military cooperation of Berlin and Moscow raises considerable anxiety in those states which had been overrun by Germany during World War II. Already prior to World War II, the German military, together with the Red Army, had conducted secret rearmament programs and had conducted illegal maneuvers on the territory of the USSR. With those actions Berlin had circumvented international controls and changed the reduced army, ordered by the Treaty of Versailles, into an army of aggression.
1) See also earlier article BASF: Access to the largest energy reserves of the world
2) See also earlier article German Armed Forces wants ,,influence over nuclear bombs"
Sources:
Russland droht Nato mit neuer Militaer-Strategie; Financial Times Deutschland 02.10.2003
Schroeder und Putin kurbeln in der Ural-Stadt Jekaterinburg Wirtschaftsprojekte an; www.bundesregierung.de 09.10.2003
Deutsches Generalkonsulat für Koenigsberg; www.russland.ru 09.10.2003
Schroeder faehrt die Ernte ein; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 10.10.2003