Veteran newspaper columnist William Rees-Mogg, a past editor of the London Times, sees and reports on important but largely unrecognized events that others overlook. One that most major news sources missed the relevance of is an agreement that, according to Mr. Rees-Mogg, "significantly alters the balance of power inside the European Union" (The Mail on Sunday).

Just before the recent German elections, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a special trip to Berlin, the two countries reaching "an agreement which has put the fear of a [potential] Russo-German entente into Poland and Eastern Europe."

This agreement brings to mind the Nazi-Soviet agreement in 1939, just before World War II. It destroyed the sovereignty of Poland and three Baltic countries. More than once Poland had been partitioned between Russia and Germany.

The present agreement involves laying a pipeline to transport gas from Russia to Germany bypassing Eastern Europe. Mr. Rees-Mogg's conclusions about a mere pipeline are very intriguing: "This is, however, a bilateral arrangement which will benefit Germany rather than Europe. It is described by President Putin as 'avoiding geopolitical risks,' by which he means avoiding Poland." Not incidentally, Poland is very friendly with America.

This noted journalist says that the recent agreement "makes Eastern Europe more dependent on Germany, makes Germany more dominant in the Franco-German alliance and makes Germany more the master of the European Union."

Perhaps this recent Russo-German agreement is only one more step in a long chain of events, but it is one that we would do well to consider in anticipating the nature of others that will follow. (Source: The Mail on Sunday [London].)