There is news from the category of those that simply cannot be.
Here is an example of one of them: Poland offered Germany its Baltic Pipe gas pipeline as an alternative to the Northern Project - 2 project.
As the press secretary of the Polish government Piotr Müller said in Warsaw, Nord Stream 2 "causes concern, as it contradicts the idea of European solidarity and energy security."
But the Polish gas (in fact, of course, it is not Polish at all, but more on that below), apparently, is "in solidarity" and "energetically safe"!
In short, let's fight for the promotion of freedoms and human rights around the world: we will replace the "totalitarian" Russian gas with "one hundred percent democratic"!
Europe will immediately solve all its problems and heal long, happily and serenely!
Why did I allow myself in the first paragraph of this text such a concentration of not funny jokes at all?
Probably because a couple of years ago, at a closed international conference, I grappled with a prominent Polish expert on Russia and the entire post-Soviet space.
My opponent from Warsaw at first raced at length about democratic values, the delights of free trade and the need for fair competition in the global economy.
It was, of course, difficult to disagree with all this.
But as soon as the respected Polish political scientist began to explain how the notorious "fair competition" is imagined in Warsaw, I had more than enough reasons to express my categorical disagreement.
I will not give all the arguments of my "new friend" from the Polish capital.
I will only say about the most important thing.
From his point of view, the construction of Nord Stream 2 had to be immediately banned on the grounds that it would deprive a democratic Ukraine of its current income from the transit of Russian gas to Europe.
And all the "progressive forces of the world" can never allow this!
I am not a shareholder of Gazprom.
In general, I have never had and do not have any relation to the gas business.
But listening to this utterly hypocritical lecture on the "secret meaning of democratic values" made me practically lose my composure.
I told my opponent everything.
I called the Polish position "the economy of gangsterism" and an attempt to return Europe to the Middle Ages, when at every crossroads of the continent there were people with weapons who did not produce anything, but regularly cut the rent from everyone who tried to do such a thankless task as transportation and delivery. goods.
Wow, how much my "new Polish friend" took offense at me!
He preached an inspired sermon that I did not understand anything about democratic values, and then defiantly stopped greeting me.
Apparently, I hit too hard on the sore spot of the official position of Warsaw.
I will not hide: this episode gave me quite a lot of moral satisfaction.
But this satisfaction did not last very long - exactly until the moment when I realized that the Poles should not be underestimated.
Warsaw's ambitions in the gas sector are not at all limited to “protecting the interests of Ukraine”.
Here's how these ambitions back in July 2019 were frankly described on the New Poland website by the analyst of the Polish Institute of International Affairs Maciej Zanevich:
“Germany is already the largest exporter of natural gas in the European Union, despite the fact that it itself does not produce a significant amount of hydrocarbons ... It was Berlin that benefited most from the re-export of Russian gas to Ukraine.
In addition, Germany is implementing a plan for a European center for the sale of natural gas, which is competitive with Poland, with the bulk of it coming from Russia.
Thus, there is a struggle for the same sales markets ”.
Bravo, bravo, Maciej Zanevich!
Finally, someone in Poland called a spade a spade.
This is not about "democratic values" at all, but about "the struggle for the same sales markets."
There remains, however, one technical question.
Like Germany, Poland is also not a world leader in the production of hydrocarbons.
Where is she going to get the "right" gas to compete with Germany?
Here is the answer to this question in Zanevich's article: “In 2015, a terminal was commissioned to receive liquefied gas supplied from Qatar, the USA and Norway, capable of receiving 5 billion cubic meters of gas.
Currently, work is underway to achieve the intake volume of 7.5 billion cubic meters ... And in 2022, it is planned to commission the Baltic Pipe with a throughput of 10 billion cubic meters, connecting Poland with Norwegian sources. "
So we heard about Baltic Pipe again!
Of course, in the current attack on Nord Stream 2, it is not Norway that plays the leading role.
This "honor", as everyone knows, belongs to the United States.
But the conclusions that can be drawn from the revelations of the Polish analyst are quite obvious.
Washington and Warsaw needed a convenient pretext for a powerful attack on Nord Stream 2.
This pretext has now appeared, and they are actively using it.
Poland pretends that she is trying to seduce someone else's bride with the help of her all-conquering charm.
But in reality we are talking about a raider takeover, an attempt to steal someone else's bride right from the altar.
And all the talk about "democratic values" is just an accompaniment.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.