German-Russian Alliance post reunification?

I read a couple articles on German unification, and during the schism of unifying Germany, many European leaders had expressed large concern and frustration towards German unification, out of fears that Germany would become militant again and use it’s economic power to take over Europe. This was mainly expressed by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. And while the United States kept the Germans in NATO, only 20% of Germans supported staying in NATO immediately after unification. Quite ironically, the Soviet Union supported German unification in order to panic the Europeans to kick Germany from NATO. Assuming the events of 1989-90 were different, and the new German state felt diplomatically isolated and pressured enough and decided to establish close diplomatic/political relations with Russia, how would European politics differ from IRL?
 

Deleted member 94680

I just don’t see a Russian alliance coming out of non-NATO membership.

Joining NATO may have been unpopular, but there’s no way a unified Germany would join with Russia so soon after the trauma of the GDR and the Stasi.

You’ve more chance of a ‘non-aligned’ Germany than an East-leaning, Moscow supporting Germany.
 
Somewhat already happened and still occurring; during Iraq '03 you had the "Moscow-Berlin-Paris" axis and nowadays you still see the Polish and Americans freaking out over Russo-German energy agreements.
 
Merkel and Schroeder have consistently prioritized their relationship with Moscow over that of the United States or the Poles or other Eastern Europeans which is why a certain pipeline is being built and why Merkel threw the Ukraine under the bus with the most token of measures.

Berlin and Moscow have acted like strategic allies more-so then Washington and Berlin have acted as such since the 90s that is for sure.

geburtstag-putin-1.jpg
 
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Khanzeer

Banned
Its smart for Germany Poland and Russia to seek deeper ties with each other and stop relying on English speaking allies
 

Khanzeer

Banned
I just don’t see a Russian alliance coming out of non-NATO membership.

Joining NATO may have been unpopular, but there’s no way a unified Germany would join with Russia so soon after the trauma of the GDR and the Stasi.

You’ve more chance of a ‘non-aligned’ Germany than an East-leaning, Moscow supporting Germany.
I like that Germany leaves NATO like a giant sweeden and acts as a genuine neutral post reunification
 
Merkel and Schroeder have consistently prioritized their relationship with Moscow over that of the United States or the Poles or other Eastern Europeans which is why a certain pipeline is being built and why Merkel threw the Ukraine under the bus with the most token of measures.

Berlin and Moscow have acted like strategic allies more-so then Washington and Berlin have acted as such since the 90s that is for sure.

geburtstag-putin-1.jpg
Ugh. Again with the “Germany/E.U. is a slave to Russian gas” garbage?

https://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_the_eu_and_russias_gas
The EU and Russia's gas

21st November, 2008
...
Conventional wisdom has it that Russia dominates Europe’s natural gas market, and that European imports of Russian gas are growing and can only continue to grow. This supposedly places the European Union in a dangerous state of dependency and compromises its strategic position towards Russia. All sides of the debate over Europe’s Russia policy share these premises, including those “realists” who argue that dependency on Russian gas makes it irresponsible for the EU to pursue policies that antagonize Moscow.

But the conventional wisdom is wrong: Europe’s gas supply is not dominated by Russia, or, for that matter, by any other exporter.

Since 1980, and particularly since 1995, Europe has considerably diversified its sources of gas imports. Today, for the EU as a whole, gas supply diversity is not a pressing problem.

Over the past 40 years, natural gas consumption has grown steadily in Europe, and much faster than primary energy consumption. (Gas now accounts for around a quarter of energy use in Europe.) Since the mid-1970s, imports have covered all this growth. In 2007, Europe imported 300 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas, accounting for 60 percent of consumption.

Russia remains the largest exporter of gas to the EU, with total annual exports of 130 bcm today. But since the early 1980s, and particularly over the past decade, import growth from other countries has outpaced that from Russia. Since 1990, 80 percent of the growth in European gas imports has originated from countries other than Russia, especially Norway, Algeria, Nigeria and the Middle East. Accordingly, Russia’s share of EU gas imports has declined sharply, from 75 percent in 1990 to just over 40 percent today.
...93.5 percent of the energy consumed in Europe is covered by sources other than Russian gas
As for “throwing Ukraine under the bus” (thought I wouldn’t exactly describe taking a 1/3 decrease in exports and risking billions of euros in potential long-term losses all on Kiev’s behalf as “throwing Ukraine under the bus”, but let’s assume you’re right for the moment) gee willikers — maybe it has something to do with Ukrainian “patriots” decorating the national parliament with Neo-Nazi symbols or the country’s armed forces showing a strange enthusiasm for LARPing in Waffen-SS memorabilia (they even did it in front of German journalists and during a presidential photo-op) or the government’s book-banning & historic revisionism efforts or military and political leaders openly speaking about how they would like to rid the country of Jews or a national holiday being declared in honour of a genocidal Nazi collaborator? You know, the little things that might sour Berlin’s desire to come bat for Ukraine
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P.S.: As an aside, I always find it amusing when Americans protest Western Europe buying Russian gas since those Americans doing the protesting are often (though not always) the ones to sing praises to capitalism and the free market. Somehow they always like to look past the fact that Russian gas is the cheapest one Western Europe can import; the European governments are simply following the direction pointed out by the invisible hand of the free market — and thus all should be right and well according to the Reaganite world-view. :p
 
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