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Nord Stream and German-Russian energy relations during the Ukraine crisis / Marco Siddi, EU energy policy blog, 16/11/2004http://www.energypolicyblog.com/2014/11/16/nord-stream-and-german-russian-energy-relations-during-the-ukraine-crisis/Eight years ago, shortly after German and Russian leaders agreed on the construction of Nord Stream, then Polish defence minister Radoslaw Sikorski called it “the Molotov-Ribbentrop pipeline”. Sikorski compared the project to the 1939 pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which partitioned East-Central Europe. Nord Stream, he argued, would allow Germany to secure its gas imports from Russia while Moscow simultaneously turned off the tap and blackmailed governments in East-Central Europe. However, contrary to Sikorski’s predictions, during the current crisis in Ukraine the pipeline has allowed Germany to take a tougher stance towards Russia than most EU member states...