December 11, 2007 (LPAC)--London has denounced Russia's Dec. 2 parliamentary elections as a fraud, and Helga Zepp-LaRouche has mocked German Chancellor Angela Merkel's incompetence in aping London in this matter. But despite Merkel, traditional German interests represented in both of the two major parties comprising Merkel's ruling coalition, are in firm support of Russian President Putin's policy. They also agree with Putin in backing the candidacy of Gazprom Chairman and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, to be Russia's next President.

Speaking yesterday in New York, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of the social-democratic SPD party, warned against attempts to isolate Russia in world affairs, and repeatedly called on the United States and Europe to adopt approaches that will make Russia a partner in all aspects of their foreign policy. He spoke passionately about the "unfairness" in the way in which the West is treating Russia, warning about the dire consequences of such a tactic, and the instability that could result from perceived attempts to isolate or degrade Moscow, in Radio Free Europe's summary of his remarks.

On the Nord Stream gas pipeline being built to pump Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, Schroeder said that it will not be a rival to existing gas pipelines. This ambitious project is being developed by Russia's state-controlled gas giant Gazprom, and Germany's E.ON and BASF, at an estimated cost of $12 billion. Schroeder, who chairs the supervisory board of Nord Stream AG, the project's operator, said growing consumption of energy resources guarantees the use of all transit routes.

"Europe currently consumes 500 billion cubic meters of gas [per year] and will require another 200 billion by 2015. The Nord Stream pipeline will be able to ensure the transportation of 55 billion cubic meters," Schroeder said. He said these figures suggest that the gas pipeline under the Baltic does not aim to compete with the existing transit routes via Ukraine or Baltic countries.

Another factor, apparently not mentioned by Schroeder, is that skyrocketing petroleum prices place a premium on natural gas use, wherever it can be substituted for oil.

At the same time, the coordinator of the German government for Russia policy, Andreas Schockenhoff of the Christian democratic CDU party, called Medvedev a "very strong candidate", and said, that he would "open a chance for Russia-German cooperation in the economic field, beyond the area of energy".