US Sanctions against Germany: How Dangerous Is Nord Stream 2?
Actually, Germany deserves much worse than just sanctions for its constant cozying up to Russia. Besides the obvious, namely all the ways that Russia benefits from Nord Stream directly, as well as how it validates Russian expansionism, Germany, being one of the initiators of the Normandy Format, is squandering its credibility vis-á-vis Ukraine, which is disastrous in two ways:
(1) Ukraine, if backed accordingly by the non-rightist EU- and NATO-members, could be useful not only as a bulwark against Russia, but also as a base from which to launch operations against the V4, two of whose members (Poland and Hungary) are historically its sworn enemies no less than Russia, with the remaining two members (Czechia and Slovakia) having at least a history of occupying Ukrainian land (namely Transcarpathia, as Czechoslovakia during the interwar period), as well as fighting Ukrainian anti-communist guerillas in the aftermath of WW2. However, if Ukraine is left high and dry, it will sooner or later fall under the influence of Poland, the only larger country in the area with a consistent anti-Russian foreign policy, thus more or less putting its manpower, economic potential and military strength at the V4's disposal. Given the pressure Ukraine is under to find allies against Russia, this scenario doesn't even require a prior right-wing shift in Ukrainian politics.
(2) Ukraine falling under the influence of Poland and the V4 could very well pave the way for a V4-Russia-merger, given that all geopolitical obstacles separating these two centers of Turanism have been removed, thus completing Dugin's vision of a Russia-dominated Turanian empire. This is actually a pattern that has repeated itself a couple of times throughout history: Poland and Russia compete for influence over Ukraine, Poland and Russia partition Ukraine between themselves, Russia eventually swallows Poland, either by force (the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) or consensual (communist Poland acceding to the Warsaw Pact). Russia needs Ukraine as a stepping stone to expand westward and the most convenient way to get this stepping stone is in conjunction with Poland/V4. Germany and the rest of the EU and NATO could prevent this by throwing all their weight behind Ukraine, but alas, this is not what's happening.