Well, by far the funniest part of the story about the energy sanctions of the consolidated Western world against the insidious Russians seems to be finally over: as first reported by Reuters, citing sources, and then confirmed by Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson, Canada has already decided about the return to Germany of the same Siemens turbine for the Nord Stream gas pipeline, the innocent repair of which at the Siemens division in Canada almost plunged Europe into an energy crisis right now.
Without waiting for the long and cold winter promised by weather forecasters - why pull something?
Moreover, the story of the adventures of this ill-fated turbine is already worthy of either an adventure novel, or an episode for a children's game of monopoly: everything is so fabulous and naive that it’s just not even possible to describe with a pen.
Even the very possible scenario of the “return of the fugitive” is worth something: like Canadians who don’t know anything and don’t notice anything, they will first hand over the turbine to Germany: you never know, maybe the Germans will need it for some other reason, purely for domestic, for example, purposes.
Something useful in the household.
And where will the Germans put it then - the Canadians are "in the house."
I don't see anything, I don't hear anything, I don't tell anyone.
And it doesn't rain, by the way, it's all your imagination.
Such is the "global economy" in the style of the famous children's game...
Although the anecdote of the story with the Siemens turbine, of course, is not only in its final: there, in fact, the whole story is one very bad for the reputation of the global West, but a very revealing anecdote.
Let's just recall that at first Ottawa refused to return the turbine, which was under maintenance in Canada, qualifying it as a dual-use item, which is already, in general, ridiculous in itself, but it doesn't matter anymore.
As a result, from mid-June, Gazprom was forced to reduce the volume of pumping through the first and only Nord Stream now.
Now the Russian pipeline monopoly supplies no more than 100 million cubic meters per day through this gas pipeline, and this is against the planned 167 million cubic meters: the difference is critical, especially during the peak planned filling of UGS facilities.
Moreover, from July 11 to July 21, Nord Stream will be stopped for routine annual maintenance.
In any other situation, no one would even pay attention to it.
But against the formidable background of what is happening, the government of the federal republic is afraid of a complete cessation of gas supplies from our country: well, there is such a possibility, albeit an insignificant one, frankly speaking.
The Russians are not at all faced with the task of immediately destroying the continental economy.
But at the same time, the very seditious idea that the Russians, it turns out, has such an opportunity, frightens the timid European wallets and hearts to the point of colic.
Although they should be scared, in general, not this.
According to Bild, according to the German Housing Association, the cost of electricity in the federal republic in the very near future may increase by several thousand euros.
So, in particular, the association expects that the additional costs will amount to €2,700 per year for a person leading his household alone, or about €5,000 for a standard four-person household in Germany.
At the same time, only in June the price of energy carriers in Germany increased by 38%.
So this can be considered a rather conservative forecast.
But even this is not yet a catastrophe: the Germans are tight-fisted people, but quite wealthy: they themselves will scrape up the bottom of the barrel, and the authorities will certainly help.
Something else is worse here: such energy prices are already directly and immediately becoming marginal, critical for the German economy.
Everyone probably remembers the already famous statement of the head of the BASF concern: without Russian gas, the backbone enterprise for the German industry will not live long, the bill will go for weeks.
Now just imagine how supply chains are collapsing, how bankruptcies are developing, and how millions of wealthy German families are literally thrown into the street.
And now add to this the prices for light and heat in houses and apartments - and you have on the table of this infernal cook almost ideal material for a social explosion.
And if we add to this both old and recent problems with migrants and other, excuse me, “refugees”, related to the current situation in Ukraine, then I personally have no doubts who will be the first to smash after politicians in Europe.
And there is nothing surprising in the fact that the German concern Siemens immediately, upon receipt of the latest news, announced that after the elimination of all formalities, it wants to deliver the turbine for the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Canada to the place of operation as soon as possible: everything is so “ on a thin one” that “break the thread” (and not in the Nord Stream gas pipeline, everything is normal with technical reliability there, but in a complex way in the German economy) can at any time.
And the head of the "Operator of the gas transmission system of Ukraine" Serhiy Makogon can complain and shout as much as he likes that "Canada has succumbed to political pressure": the Germans are just not up to it now.
They themselves, as they say, burn.
Look, even Scholz, in spite of everything, welcomed the fateful decision of the Canadian authorities - and where could he go, poor fellow.
And here, as in that well-known and also bad, by the way, anecdote, “this Ukrainian paratrooper also got sick.”
But even with such a successful development of events for the Germans, the return of the turbine will still take place far from lightning fast: delivery, acceptance, testing.
Experts say that a realistic timeframe for launching turbines and returning the Nord Stream gas pipeline to its design capacity is two to three months at best.
And there - how things will go.
This is just a technical fact, which is simply impossible to ignore.
And all these entertaining problems, not only invented on their own heads, without any outside interference, but also sustained in the style of a bad and, if you like, a little “childish”, or something (this whole story is generally deeply infantile), an anecdote, the global Western economy composed itself.
And, as they say, out of the blue.
Right here is a tale about how Germany and Canada decided to jointly punish the Russians and what came of it.
And it turned out a lot of interesting things, but the Russians, by the way, were not punished at the same time.
Everything is simple for these barbarians - short deliveries are compensated by a rapidly rising price.
But as it turns out, it is impossible to compensate for the falling volumes of Russian gas.
And the consequences of this are not long in coming.
In particular, according to the majority of experts, 1,000 cubic meters of gas in Europe may rise in price to an average of $2,200 in the next month.
Once again: right now, without even waiting for winter.
And, both for the majority of ordinary Europeans in particular, and for the European economy in general and as a whole - on which they, “ordinary Europeans”, of course, depend in some way, this bad anecdote becomes, in the light of these forecasts, already somehow directly - absolutely not funny.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.