Re:Was the Nord Stream 2 Rupture an Accidental Catalyst?
by jemmyw on Monday February 20, 2023 @12:40AM
(#34865286)
By the time it blew up Russia had lost their leverage. It was clear by then that Europe was going to absorb the gas situation. That doesn't rule out the US. This is a reasonable take on it that doesn't conclude anything but looks at the reactions https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EeP_ZZbBIl4
Re:Was the Nord Stream 2 Rupture an Accidental Catalyst?
by throwawaylinux on Monday February 20, 2023 @01:19AM
(#34865497)
Have to wonder whether the Russia investigation looked in the right places. Georgia, Crimea, Ukraine, 1980s wanting its foreign policy back, secretly promising "flexibility" to Putin. Makes you wonder what Putin paid for that kind of flexibility.
Re:Was the Nord Stream 2 Rupture an Accidental Catalyst?
by villmann on Monday February 20, 2023 @06:34AM
(#34867173)
What WWIII? The one where Russia, that has no functioning military, together with Wakanda faces the rest of the world? The rusted non-functioning nukes that Russia has no reason to use and only function as a deterrant?
The Biden administration walked back the Trump policy of sanctioning anybody who did work on the NS2 pipeline. Russia was able to use this as an implied bargaining chip against German support for Ukraine.
Who benefits from blowing up a Russian pipeline in The Baltic Sea? Russia? The country that was planning on using this as leverage? Who could have just as easily simply turned the supply off?
The idea that anybody ever bought that is embarrassing.
Now Germany is also signaling that they aren't on board with the idea of economic sanctions against China: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-02-18/China-to-expand-mutual...
Germany is trying to avoid WW3 here, which I think is signaled by their initial reaction to the war, and now signaled again with their response to the idea of economic sanctions against China. In pursuit of that, they didn't want to support the war in Ukraine, for what I think should now be obvious reasons. The US was worried that they wouldn't be willing to risk their population freezing to death this winter, so we blew up the gas pipeline and took the option away from them.