Russia and Germany are partners in pipelines

[Kshasty]

First of all, you can isolate German-Russian relations and talk about bilateral relations. They are always more complex. Germany is not a sovereign player but part of the European Union. In other respects, Germany is an important part of NATO. So having said this, let’s talk about German-Russian relations keeping in mind that, at least on the German side, this is, analytically speaking, an asymmetric relationship. Russia is a sovereign player; Germany is a country that is allied in many respects. And that of course already demonstrates some of the problems in talking and negotiating.

German-Russian relations are, on the whole, good, but they could be better, much better. There is a balanced relationship in the energy field. We get a lot of energy; Russia gets a lot of money. We are partners in pipelines. We’ve even come to a trilateral agreement on Ukraine. This is a good sign. What the German side wants is of course much more market penetration. There are, if I understand correctly, about 4000, or a little over, representative offices from the German side in Moscow and in other places, but above all in Moscow. Of course they would like to not only be present there but also sell much more and find lucrative investments. The main problem on the Russian side is not that there is no demand. The main problem is the uncertainty in the judicial system, the existence of organized crime on a level which far exceeds anything acceptable in Western Europe, including in the Italian south.

http://valdaiclub.com/content/michael-stuermer-russia-and-germany-are-partners-pipelines