As a matter of fact, what are good about the American powers that be is their downright infantile spontaneity, with which they sometimes call things by their proper names: yes, of course, in their own way, and these "names", to put it mildly, do not always correspond to objective reality , but what the hell is the difference if there is a very specific business interest in the case, which they always have above their political interest ?!
Because this is the basis of the foundations from the American point of view: in the end, allies come and go, and sometimes even die when it is especially needed. And money - money stays with you.
As a matter of fact, what we are talking about now - now the Europeans themselves are beginning to understand - is simply initially obvious for you and me: this entire sanctions "war with the Russians" from an economic point of view is being waged by the United States of America not at all with Russia. Everything is simple here: we cannot tell the Americans that we are not at all interesting in the sense of fighting, but they are "economically at war" exclusively with competitors.
And we, from their point of view, in terms of the economy, are not even close to being a competitor. At least for now.
And the main blow, therefore, in this particular case, is by no means inflicted on our economy. The direction of the main blow, with all obviousness, simply in fact, now falls exactly where this blow was aimed.
Namely - on the economies of the eurozone countries.
And the current situation around the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline simply illustrates this as prominently as possible. That is, so much so that you simply wonder why, after such a frank admission of “criminal intentions” on the European subcontinent, among political leaders, “Atlanticists” who are in solidarity with this no less frank robbery can come from: because for European economies today, “Atlanticism” is psychologically extremely close to suicidal tendencies. That is - it's very easy to see - if earlier the Americans simply robbed the European markets, now they decided to kill them.
However, in order.
As the German newspaper Die Welt reported last weekend, citing knowledgeable sources in German business circles, the American authorities continue to increase pressure on the German and European companies involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2. Thus, in particular, the newspaper learned that the American side did not held at least two videoconferences with contractors from Germany and other European countries so long ago to "point out the far-reaching implications of their continued involvement in the project." And this least of all resembles the usual, albeit not entirely correct, "promotion of the interests of American business" - the composition of the participants is too peculiar and specific: for example, it is known that representatives of the State Department, the Treasury Department and the US Department of Energy took part in the conferences.
And once again we will quote Die Welt: during these events, American officials were very unequivocal and “made it very clear that they wanted to prevent the completion of the construction of Nord Stream 2” (c). And this is in addition to the incendiary speech of the American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who directly demanded that Shell, Engie, Uniper, Wintershall and OMV either "leave immediately", or even "get out" at all (here even among the recognized experts in the Anglo-American dialect there are some discrepancies in translation) from the Nord Stream 2 project, otherwise companies may face, in particular, the blocking of all assets in the United States.
The threat, by the way, is more than serious: it was because of such threats that European companies, the owners of pipe-laying vessels, left the project.
But here everything is even tougher, because if the shipowners had somewhere to leave their projects (and by and large everyone understood that in the most extreme case they could be replaced by the same Akademik Chersky, which is to complete the construction of the gas pipeline), then European energy giants simply have nowhere to "exit" from the project. And how exactly the companies that have already issued loans worth € 4.7 billion to Nord Stream 2 AG can avoid sanctions, and how these sanctions can prevent the Russian side, which has undertaken the technical implementation of the project to the final result, from completing the construction of the gas pipeline - it would not be at all understandable, if not for one thing. Looking at American opposition to the projectNord Stream 2 as their confrontation not with Russia, but with the eurozone - then everything instantly turns out to be logical and completely, albeit cannibalistic, but rational and explainable and takes its rightful place.
In fact, everything is simple.
If you look closely, for example, at the map of protests five years ago, associated with both the “Arab spring” and the eternal Ukrainian off-season, you can easily see that all these events had another very curious “side effect”: either direct destruction, or passing under the control of conditional "Atlantists" or sources of energy raw materials (the most striking example is Libya), or the routes of their existing and / or potential transportation to European markets (the most striking examples are Ukraine and Syria).
And of course, maybe it’s so accidental, as they say, “the cards went down”, but it’s too painful they did it in time. Just when Trump was already going to directly voice the demand in Davos to “transfer European money to the American economy”, because it’s America, excuse me, but in any case it’s first. And you need to be an extremely naive, almost virgin person to believe in another wonderful fairy tale: that the United States is doing all this solely in order to promote its "shale LNG" on European markets.
The game is not worth the candle, sorry.
Especially, by the way, now, when there is almost no "shale industry" in the USA as a result of the recent crisis. What happened then and is happening on the shale oil market is still softly referred to as “a state of great uncertainty,” and the gas, we recall, is there for the most part that this oil is “accompanying”. And to get it somehow separately is just unrealistic and technological and economic nonsense.
Hence, the task is different. Namely, in strangling a competitor through the energy markets: there is no need to even invent anything special. European industry, for example, is extremely energy-intensive, and if it is properly suppressed by all sorts of "green initiatives", forced to abandon the atom and coal, like Germany, and then also make uninterrupted and reliable supplies of natural gas as difficult as possible, then energy will inevitably become Europe is much more expensive.
And this will make it possible not only to "win in a fair competition", but also to rob the Old World gracefully (in the American sense), siphoning money and technology out of it and depriving it of its only remaining "sovereignty", namely, economic sovereignty. Well, then, then everything is clear: twice during the last, twentieth century, the United States saved its crisis economy by robbing continental Europe following the results of world wars, now there is such an opportunity to do this even without war: well, why the hell should they change so much noble pirate traditions?
Here, however, there is one problem: Europe in the situation around Nord Stream 2 (and this, we will insist, is a much more European project than Russian: Europe needs it much more than we do) managed to acquire a very strong, albeit situational, ally.
Namely - the Russian Federation, which undertook to build a gas pipeline "in iron", and it will definitely complete it.
And by the way, the current break in construction is really connected not with the threats of the American Secretary of State and other formidable video conferences, but with the annual seasonal "cod move". And this is no joke, cod is a very serious part of the food security of many Baltic countries, moreover, this "spawning ban" was announced very strongly in advance, and the Russian side could not ignore such a reverent attitude towards spawning cod.
Therefore, we were in no hurry with "Chersky", apparently, preparing in advance to actually get involved in work immediately after September 1.
Well, generally speaking, for us it is a very good test, and for European money. Because this is also a test not even for the European economy, it is a test for the whole of Europe, exactly what for viability: because if in this case, for it is really vital for it, it succumbs to overseas pressure, then make serious plans with it for some then long-term joint activity is simply impossible at all. And we need to consider it, as the Americans do: not as an independent "center of power" with which one can and must negotiate as our largest trading partner, for example. And just as a market for anything, and not for the longest term: for what really, but to rob the colonies of their own business, designated as the same "banana republics", our overseas partners are very thoughtful and do not miss anything if possible. And to hope that this time after the robbery there will be something really alive, as if it were softer, somewhat rash.
Their experience is great.
However, so far Europe is obviously holding on, and even in Germany, which is usually conciliatory in this sense, regarding Nord Stream 2, for some time there is a single consolidated position of various political forces: they also understand well that for the German industry there is a question of reliable and guaranteed supplies of inexpensive against the general background of energy raw materials - this is a banal question of survival.
Nevertheless, let us at least be frank with ourselves: we will, of course, complete the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but this will not finally close the issue. Because the attack on European industry and the economy as a whole will not end with this, and it would not happen that at the other end of the pipeline there will be no people willing to buy this very gas at any price. For the banal reason for the ruin of these same buyers.
And here, of course, I would like to hope for the vitality of Europeans. Still, it makes sense to accelerate the construction of LNG production facilities and end with the protracted design of Power of Siberia - 2.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.