Endgame, but not the end of the game

Well, today, August 3, 2020, after the deadline for appealing Denmark's new permit expires, the DEA no longer sees any legal obstacles to the continued construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, the Danish Energy Agency told reporters.

Furthermore. As explained in the Danish Energy Agency, even if on the last day someone manages to file an appeal, "a possible appeal filed with the Danish Energy Appeals Board will not have an immediate suspensive effect." That is, the decision was made in principle: you can build.

No, we can certainly continue to try to resist in this direction. Here, everyone is free to have fun in their own way, so tell the Poles with the Ukrainians who joined them.

But in general and on the whole at this stage - the "artel" Wasted labor.

In short, construction will continue.

And in the previously agreed time frame, adjusted immediately after the previous stage of US sanctions, when the European owners of pipe-laying vessels were forced to abandon the work. And in full accordance with the way Russian President Putin voiced the issue at the beginning of this year. And according to the schedule, and even somewhat ahead of it: cod breeding, which so worried a number of Western and especially Eastern European "ecologists", for the sake of such a case, it was decided to leave without appropriate attention.

And, in fairness, the construction of Nord Stream 2 could have influenced these mating games, just like the chemical weapons dumped in the Baltic Sea during World War II.

That is about nothing.

But only the time-designers of the last stage of construction of Nord Stream 2 took into account this “crackling run” anyway, they simply could not do without it, because they are too well aware of the environmental foolishness of some of our European partners. Yes, and among our common overseas well-wishers there are enough fans to admire the movement of a rather exotic for their distant homeland and a purely European cod. Therefore, and we must give it its due, the news of "increased crackling loyalty" on the part of the Europeans was greeted by the management of Nord Stream 2 AG, rather than as an unexpected bonus and generally a pleasant surprise. But in general, at the same time, to be honest, it is not very principled: well, they would have started laying pipes in September, but now it is possible from August. Nevertheless, a trifle, as they say, but pleasant.

Which, by the way, of course, cannot but rejoice if you look at it a little from the other side: because it means that, at least, some of the European elites somehow began to understand that this time from them senior American partners need more than just another expression of submission. And everything that they have and that is "acquired by overwork", including the children's collection of stamps: that is, approximately in the style of the hero of the American-American Schwarzenegger, namely, "clothes, weapons, boots and a motorcycle."

And here and now.

And after that the “European partner” will remain a little inanimate or only naked and barefoot - from the far away Washington, in general, it is not so important.

"Boots and a motorcycle", not to mention weapons, it just so happened, at this historical stage for these terminators in some way more important.

And here, we, in turn, need to clearly understand: what for us from our fatherland of sad autumn aspens seems to be “timid attempts of European resistance”, in fact, for Europeans who are accustomed to “picking up” Europeans is almost a new Verdun. The last line of defense. Because defending Nord Stream 2, they are not actually defending "Russian gas on the route to Europe." And European economic sovereignty: the last sovereignty that the once proud European subcontinent still has. And of course, this does not mean that Europe will continue to desperately fight against the "new colonialists": it can simply "fight" now at the maximum, excuse me, like that.

Ignoring cod spawning.

Well: no one should be asked for more than he can actually give someone. Alas.

And here only one question arises: what about us, the state of the Russian Federation and the business structures representing its economic interests, this is all beauty, forgive me, why?

Indeed, in fact, if you look at what is happening from a purely pragmatic commercial standpoint, then the expediency of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in today's realities is not at all so obvious: this year, for example, - okay, the coronavirus - but this is how it really represents "Excess capacity". Therefore, by the way, no one was in a hurry with its completion, quite calmly transferring it to the end of 2020 - the beginning of 2021. For so far, there is still no such confidence that we will be able to load the Ukrainian pipe "under the contract" recently. And if a deficit suddenly arises on European markets, it can always be covered with Russian LNG: by the way, even Americans do not mind its presence there, although LNG from Yamal literally "kicked" the Americans from promising European LNG markets ( the classic example is Spain). And if pipeline routes are so important to us, then here it is for you, Western China and the projected Power of Siberia - 2.

On the same, by the way, "Yamal" resource base.

And - we must give it its due - there is certainly a certain homely truth in this kind of reasoning, alas, to our regret, of course. If not for one thing, which, unfortunately, makes the current European problems with the artificially formed deficit of energy raw materials there our own problems. Not very noticeable at the level of a short-term historical perspective, but quite capable of turning into a strategic catastrophe already in the mid-term planning horizon.

It's all simple here.

We have repeatedly written about why stable and reliable supplies of Russian pipeline gas are so critical for the industry of the Northwest (German) industrial cluster, which is backbone for the European economy. But this dependence also has a downside: for Russian raw materials, this is an extremely reliable and virtually guaranteed buyer. And the main economic "wars" at the end of the last - the beginning of this century are, obviously, not even wars for resources, but, paradoxically as it may sound, wars for sales markets.

And accordingly, in the course of the competition, which sometimes takes on the character of an open economic war, the Americans will succeed in strangling the German (well, not only German, here everything is a little conditional) industry properly in their arms - which means they will drag production to themselves. And there will be completely different suppliers of energy resources, or at least on completely different terms.

And this, too, is somehow rather stupid not to understand.

Let's be honest: we generally like old Europe. In general, we are, albeit a very peculiar, but quite European culture, including in the sense of the organization of the economy.

But old Europe, critically interdependent with our energy giants, we like even more. And we want the industry of this very Europe to live and prosper to our joy: in this respect, we are also quite civilized people, and let all flowers bloom in the West, and not just American flowers: well, that's the kind of artistic taste that Russians have.

And it is precisely for these, purely “distant” strategic reasons that we are simply obliged to help the European economic elites to strengthen their economic sovereignty, no matter how unpleasant the European political elites may be to us. For a completely banal reason: by doing so, we secure ourselves strategically important markets for our energy raw materials. And in this sense, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is even more a gas pipeline to the future, not today.

Another thing is that I would like these to be sales markets not only for "energy raw materials", but also for products of a much deeper redistribution, and we also have something to offer the gentlemen of Europe. But this is another question, and this question is not at all about the current state of the European administrative elites and not even about the construction, obviously, more Europe needs than us, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Which, nevertheless, we will definitely complete it. But even after that, it will be extremely naive to assume that everything will fall into place and that if not the end, then at least a qualitative break in the process of the “big energy redistribution” will come.

This will simply be the endgame of a specific current game, not the end of the game.

The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.