Former Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell told Newsmax Friday that a combination of the polices of President Joe Biden, Democratic senators, and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel led to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, and the continuing bloodshed in the region.
"The Biden administration and Senate Democrats joined [former] Chancellor Merkel in dropping the [former President Donald] Trump sanctions on the Russian (Nord Stream 2) pipeline, thereby creating this Russian offense, creating this war," Grenell said during "Stinchfield" Friday.
"It's not too much to say Biden, Senate Democrats, and Chancellor Merkel helped create this war in Ukraine. I think there's a lot [to] argue in that direction."
Grenell said during the 16 years that Merkel served as chancellor in Germany, that nation developed a dependency on Russian energy that is now funding Russian President Vladimir Putin's military offensive in Ukraine.
"Chancellor Merkel put [Germany] in this position," Grenell said. "Remember that the Germans had the largest, and most powerful military in Europe in the 1990s, and it's trickled away. They really don't have a working military right now that can do much, and so they're not able to help militarily [in] Ukraine."
Grenell said that the first pipeline, Nord Stream 1, was good because it helped Europe have a diversity in its energy sources, but Nord Stream 2 "went too far," and President Trump was right to pause its construction, a move that Biden reversed shortly after taking office.
"The United States believed that Germany and the Europeans should have energy diversification," he said. "We think Russian energy is a part of that. So, Nord Stream 1 was okay. Nord Stream 2 went too far. It created dependence.
"It was a pipeline of leverage into the German economy. We now see that to be true. I'm not expecting the German government to come out and say Trump was right."
Grenell said that with Merkel gone, Germany is now making a "U-turn" and is turning away from the "Merkelism" of the last 16 years and may now be coming around to taking a more aggressive stand against Russia.
"We need to have a debate about the 16 years of 'Merkelism,'" he said. "I believe that not only did she move Germany, but she moved Europe to a dangerous situation where now we find ourselves, where the Russians are rewriting the borders of Europe."
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