NO ONE EVER MEANS, "NEVER AGAIN":

Since the war began, Germany has been the key country to watch in terms of how the West would respond -- and not only because of its history. As Europe's largest economy and arguably its dominant political actor, Germany is in a unique position to bring pressure to bear on Russian President Vladimir Putin's government. And Germany sends $220 million a day to Moscow in the form of payments for Russian oil and gas. That is sparking a fierce debate within and outside Germany about what more the country should be doing to punish Putin and his war machine.

Some of Germany's allies have long been frustrated with its reluctance, under multiple governments, to more directly confront the Kremlin. In the weeks leading up to the invasion, Germany had been derided as the "weak link" in the Western alliance and mocked for sending Ukraine helmets while other countries were providing anti-tank missiles.

All that seemed to change when Putin sent his forces into Ukraine. On Feb. 27, three days into the war, Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave a speech in which he called the invasion a zeitenwende -- translated as "turning point" or "revolution" -- in German foreign policy. While Germany was still open to negotiations with Russia, he said, "not being naive also means not talking simply for the sake of talking." And some of the steps taken by Germany in the early days of the war really were revolutionary. The government canceled the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which would have doubled exports of Russian gas to Germany. Scholz boosted defense spending to 2 percent of GDP, in line with NATO's target for members, and added 100 billion euros in new spending on military investments -- more than double its entire defense budget for 2021. Germany also began supplying anti-tank and air defense missiles to Ukraine, overturning a long-standing policy of not sending weapons into conflict zones.

"It would have been hard to imagine Germany doing these things and saying these things even two months prior," Steven Keil, a fellow for security and defense policy at the German Marshall Fund, told Grid. "But what was a significant shift for Germany wasn't necessarily enough for the rest of the trans-Atlantic community."

Indeed, it appears the zeitenwende has its limits. One crucial limit in particular: It will not stop sending all those oil and gas payments to Moscow. Germany has opposed proposals to impose an embargo against Russian gas exports, which Finance Minister Christian Lindner said would "inflict more damage on ourselves than on [Russia.]" The Germans did agree to a plan to phase out imports of Russian coal but pushed to extend the wind-down period by a month. For all its strong rhetoric, Germany is still effectively subsidizing Russia's war with energy payments.

Tweet   @brothersjudd