The US continues its crusade against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
He looks doomed, but the United States has no choice.
Therefore, failing to cross the mountain of circumstances, they are trying in every possible way to bypass it.
Recently, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, in a conversation with his German counterpart Heiko Maas, said that European companies participating in the SP-2 should seriously think about their future - after all, they may find themselves under American sanctions.
The United States is simply trying to scare Europe.
Blinken makes it clear that right here and now there may not be any sanctions, if only in order not to arrange a direct conflict with the FRG and not humiliate it publicly.
“Germany is one of our closest allies around the world.
And the presence of disagreements over the pipeline will not change this status, ”said the Secretary of State.
However, this does not mean that there will be no sanctions at all - they are simply suspended like a sword of Damocles over the heads of unreasonable European businessmen, and the sword may collapse at any moment.
Moreover, the majority of congressmen are in favor of its collapse - in their letter to the secretary of state, the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez and the chairman of its subcommittee on European affairs Jean Sheikhin recalled that SP-2 has already been completed by 90-95%, and urged accelerate the process of adopting serious sanctions packages. "
So far, however, his horror stories do not work.
Those companies that could be scared have already got scared and left.
The SP-2 itself continues to build, albeit slowly, nevertheless.
And then the question arises: do the Americans have nothing to do at all?
Is Paris in general worth (that is, the cancellation of SP-2) all this mass, all these efforts?
After all, if a few years ago America could easily block the project (when the Europeans had not yet invested money in it, and the SP-2 itself did not go through all the approval procedures in the same European Commission), now it is really 90-95% complete and with legal point of view is almost invulnerable, and money is allocated for it.
Why are Americans so afraid of SP-2?
Yes, Blinken gives the answer.
“The pipeline divides Europe, makes Ukraine and Central Europe vulnerable to manipulation and pressure from Russia and goes across the goals of the European energy strategy,” explains the head of the State Department.
But these statements are, to put it mildly, ridiculous.
Yes, the pipeline divides Europe, but for the absolute majority, who want to receive cheaper Russian gas in larger quantities and with greater transit reliability (that is, not through the Ukrainian gulyaypole), and for the minority of those EU members for whom European interests are less important than implementation Russophobic tasks.
The pipeline does not make Eastern Europe and Ukraine Russian hostages.
Since the gas crisis at the end of the 2000s, Moscow has always cared about the interests of European consumers much more than about its own needs, otherwise it would have long ago closed transit through Ukraine, which believes that it is at war with the Russian Federation.
Even at the hour of great foreign policy need - in 2014 and 2015 - Gazprom did not stoop to blackmail the European Union by threatening to close its valve.
The Russian company values its status as a reliable supplier of blue fuel too much, and thanks to this status, Russian gas sends greetings to all representatives of the Diversification Witnesses Sect, who are looking for and cannot find an alternative with a similar price-to-security ratio.
As for the coercion of Ukraine (we are talking about the fact that Moscow will put pressure on Ukraine through the threat of depriving gas transit, and hence payments for it under the current contract), then, firstly, how can Kiev generally take money from the “country -occupant "?
Secondly, it would be nice for the Ukrainian leadership to recall the motto of the House of Greyjoys from Game of Thrones: "What is dead cannot die."
The Ukrainian GTS is so worn out - it is already partly dead and partly dying.
And the transit of gas through it is in any case unsafe - it is no coincidence that in the current contract Russia has achieved a gradual reduction in the minimum obligatory volume of transit.
Of course, even if SP-2 starts to work, some transit through Ukraine will remain (especially if the volume of consumption of blue fuel in the EU grows), but it will be relatively small.
As for the goals of the European Energy Strategy, the Europeans themselves (for whom Blinken for some reason thinks) have long realized that the diversification plan spelled out in their strategy has failed.
Well, nowhere else around Europe is there the same cheap gas and the same reliability of supplies (especially if they are direct via SP-2).
Libya, the Eastern Mediterranean and any routes tied to Turkish transit are all unreliable, and American gas is too expensive.
Finally, the cherry on the cake of the American absurdity "Europe should not buy hydrocarbons from the Russians, so as not to depend on Moscow" is their own purchase of Russian hydrocarbons.
“In 2020, Russia became the third largest oil supplier to the United States - it is behind Canada and Mexico, but at the same time ahead of Saudi Arabia.
And while, within the framework of energy diplomacy, Washington is trying to stop Nord Stream 2, American companies are very busy buying Russian oil, ”writes Javier Blas, chief energy specialist at Bloomberg.
However, the United States is still following the path of this absurdity, it is still trying to ban SP-2 - after all, Europe is at stake.
The "Russian-German pipeline pact", as some Western journalists call "Nord Stream 2", is the clearest example of Europe's malicious violation of party internal NATO discipline.
The fact is that the Americans have invested a lot of money, effort and threats to position the alliance as a monolithic bloc in the military-political plan.
Or at least monolithic in terms of relations with Russia.
And when Germany implements a large geopolitical project with Vladimir Putin, this image, to put it mildly, cracks.
And after Germany, party discipline against common enemies can be violated by other allies in blocs.
The countries of the Middle East will begin to work with Tehran, the East Asian satellites of the United States will begin to build bridges with Beijing.
And everyone will quickly realize that Russia, China and Iran are enemies of the United States, but not of a number of American allies.
That the views of the United States and its allies on global threats differ greatly.
And there it is not far to the idea that the main threat to these allies is the United States itself, which is drawing regional states into conflicts that are meaningless for those.
That is why Washington is trying to prevent a German precedent with SP-2.
But will it work out?
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.