If they had only Bypassed Poland in the First Place

To:--Der Spiegel

Re:-- The "new" German-Russian "strategic partnership".

Medvedev by once again emphasizing the strategic nature of the German-Russian partnership. Once in Berlin, Medvedev aimed much of his speech at NATO, warning that continued eastward expansion of the alliance could harm Western relations with Moscow. "There will be no confrontation, of course," he said. "But the price will be high. That will inflict very serious damage."

When it came to Merkel, however, Medvedev didn't arrive empty handed and announced an "energy partnership" with Berlin. The German chancellor responded by praising Russia's reliability as a gas and oil supplier and threw her support behind the controversial North Sea pipeline planned to deliver gas from Russia directly to Germany, thus bypassing Poland.

Haha.... well if they had bypassed Poland in the FIRST place, Churchill would be footnoted as a drunk tory politician, FDR as a two term failure and we'd all be singing beer hall songs to the accompaniment of electric balailaikas.

.