Putin strikes blow against Russia's isolation by Europe

German chancellor Angela Merkel and Putin defended the Nord Stream 2 gas project at their meeting in Meseberg Castle, outside Berlin, on Saturday (18 August) in Putin's first bilateral visit to Germany since the invasion in 2014.

"In connection with Ukraine, we will also talk about gas transit. In my view, even if Nord Stream 2 exists, Ukraine has a role to play in gas transit to Europe," Merkel said ahead of their three-and-a-half hour talks.

The project will "perfect the European gas transport system and minimise transit risks. It will ensure supply for growing consumption in Europe", Putin said.

"Nord Stream 2 is an exclusively economic project. It does not close any possibilities for transit of Russian gas through Ukraine," he added.

"Germany is one of the largest buyers of Russian energy resources … consumption of Russian gas is growing from year to year. Last year, it increased by 13 percent," he also said.

The pipeline, which is being built, will concentrate 80 percent of Russian gas sales to Europe on the German route from 2020.

Its critics say it will entrench European energy dependence on Russia and help Moscow to cut off Western allies, including Ukraine, for strategic reasons in future.

US sanctions

The Merkel-Putin meeting came amid US preparations to fine the five EU energy firms involved in the project.

It also came amid a wider transatlantic rift after US leader Donald Trump accused Germany of being "captured" by Russia over the pipeline deal and after he imposed trade tariffs on EU metals exports, prompting a trade war.

Merkel and Putin declined to take questions from press, but Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, underlined the idea that Germany and Russia were taking a common stance against the US in what amounted to a symbolic reversal of the Western alliance against Russia's aggressive behaviour.

They agreed it was "necessary to take steps to shield it [the pipeline] from potential attacks from third countries [the US]," Peskov said.

They shared worries about the "unpredictability of decisions, especially in the area of tariffs, taken by some states [the US]", he added, and "the concern that such decisions may have in the end negative consequences for the international trade relations system".

Merkel, who recently said Nord Stream 2 was a "political" project, did not challenge Putin's assertion that it was "exclusively economic".

She said on Ukraine that the so-called Minsk accord remained the basis for ending the conflict and lamented the fact "that we still do not have a stable ceasefire" there.

But she declined to note that Minsk called for Russian forces to leave Ukraine or to blame Putin for the ongoing hostilities in the east of the country.

Putin also made a show of unity with Germany on the Iran nuclear arms control deal against Trump's decision to walk away from the accord.

He added that if the EU were to pay for the post-war reconstruction of Syria, where his forces have driven people to flee by bombarding opposition-held areas, then it would benefit Merkel by allowing Syrian refugees to go home.

"This [the influx of refugees] is potentially a huge burden for Europe … That's why we have to do everything to get these people back home," Putin said, amid a political backlash against Merkel by anti-immigrant parties in Germany.

Austrian wedding

The Meseberg meeting came on the heels of Putin's visit to Austria to attend the wedding of its foreign minister, Karin Kneissl.

Russian state broadcaster, RT, showed a video of her curtsying to the Russian president and dancing with him at her party.

It was described as a "private" visit by Putin, who brought 100 Cossack singers to the event, though he also held "working" talks in his limousine with Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

Austrian opposition politicians noted that Austria, which holds the EU presidency, had had a special responsibility to uphold European foreign policy of isolating Russia over the Ukraine war.

Joerg Leichtfried, the spokesman of the opposition centre-left SPO party, called the wedding incident "strange, naive, and capable of causing lasting damage to Austria's foreign policy position".

It was "symbolic and harmful to court the Russian president in this manner", he said.

Green MEP Michel Reimon called for Kneissl, who was nominated by the pro-Russian and far-right FPO party in Austria's ruling coalition, to resign.

The Putin wedding and Austria's claim it had no political meaning gave rise to a "sad smile", Ukrainian foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin said.