In fact, of course, I personally would link the “act of sabotage” (and this is actually the officially declared position of Western countries now, it’s impossible to explain it by chance) on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, not so much, as it is now accepted, with the holding of referendums in the new territories of the Russian Federation.
Or, for example, with an interesting parallel launch of the Polish gas pipeline Baltic Pipe along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, although, I understand my colleagues, such a logical construction simply suggests itself in this particular case.
How many with not much, to put it mildly, successful results of the last visit of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, which we already wrote about exactly a week ago.
Agree, as a result of an extensive and rather humiliating “Arab tour” for various reasons (recall, Scholz visited all three leading producing powers of the region at once - the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. He would probably have driven to Iraq with Iran out of desperation , but so far the elders do not allow it), caused by an acute energy shortage in Europe here and now, one (!) LNG tanker from the United Arab Emirates and unclear prospects for the future, the result would have been, as they say, so-so in peacetime.
And in the current circumstances, it should be considered as close to catastrophic as possible.
Winter is coming, sorry.
And next spring, according to forecasts, it will definitely not be easier for Europe.
Or rather, quite the opposite.
And in this situation, simply out of desperation, the Germans, obviously, increasingly began to look towards the non-working for various reasons, but then still quite serviceable "Streams": moreover, not only ordinary citizens and the so-called political outcasts from among both the left and and, conversely, the right - for example, supporters of the "Alternative for Germany".
But people are quite systemic, like officials of various departments.
And even the heads of some federal states.
So, in fact, they were deprived of these illusions for the future: if continental Europe is ordered by senior comrades to go through a painful process of de-industrialization and regression, including social regression, then there is no need to invent anything.
And the energy crisis is only one of the stages of this necessary process.
Well, then everything is simple.
Everyone knows that if an American sergeant commands "Jump!"
- then the only question that makes sense for him to ask is: "How high to jump?".
And everything else is trifles.
And in general violation of basic democratic norms.
Therefore, the beneficiaries of the "act of sabotage" are quite obvious, and there is no need to even think of anything.
And when Russian Energy Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak says that the countries that have previously officially taken a negative position in relation to this project are primarily interested in decommissioning the Nord Stream, he also doesn’t think of anything.
And just once again draws the attention of the audience to officially and repeatedly documented, including under television cameras, recorded facts.
Or someone Joe Biden about the fact that he "will not allow the operation of these pipelines" and that he "has the means" to prevent the operation of the "Streams", excuse me, officially, under these same television cameras, did not say ?!
Or did Poland and Ukraine at one time not directly declare that “this infrastructure will not work”, and did not promise to do everything for this?!
No, now you can say whatever you want.
And about the cunning of the Russians, who undermined themselves, including.
But, you know, it so happened that this interesting documentary has already been seen all over the world.
And why make people laugh?
Therefore, we will simply quote the same Novak: “Today we proceed from the fact that it is necessary first of all to figure out who did this, and we are sure that certain countries that previously expressed their positions are interested in this” (c).
And we agree with his rather confident position: the case is really high-profile, you can’t really shove it under the table like some unknown Skripals or Navalny’s underpants.
Even in wartime conditions.
Although every possible and even impossible effort will be applied to this, everything is much more complicated here.
And what is perhaps the most important and dangerous thing for the West itself: as the American National Review quite rightly writes, in this case Russia will not need at all any “global recognition of the system of evidence” or the decision of any international instances.
Similar,
That Russia, by the way, only rather demonstratively, sorry for the involuntary tautology, and demonstrated.
It is important for her to understand herself.
And then - as a sovereign power (again, we quote National Review, smart people work there) - "Russia can begin to treat the United States as a full-fledged belligerent and attack our infrastructure" (c).
Agree, not the most interesting - even in the "hybrid confrontation" mode - for the modern US-led "Western community" result.
Britain is also an island, sorry.
And transatlantic cables across the Atlantic cannot be blocked.
And we are no longer talking about Taiwan.
But that's half the trouble.
The question "Who is to blame?", of course, is one of the so-called eternal Russian questions.
But that's just another eternal Russian question, namely, "What to do?"
— including what we should all do about the catastrophic energy shortage expected this winter (maximum spring) in Europe — this is much more important.
And this is where the most interesting thing begins: the same Alexander Novak, on the one hand, unconditionally confirmed a thing that was already clear to professionals: no matter how serious the damage in Nord Stream, they are hardly irreparable.
Although, according to preliminary estimates, they look quite catastrophic.
And here we will quote the Russian Deputy Prime Minister again, after all, he is much better informed about what is happening than others, and in general he is quite an official in the Russian government: “Of course, there are technical possibilities to restore the infrastructure, it takes time and appropriate funds.
I am sure that appropriate opportunities will be found ”(c).
And this is where the most, perhaps, most interesting question arises: will anyone in the current political circumstances have these “technical capabilities” - as in Europe,
This time.
And two, sorry again: who will pay for the banquet?
Because that is also important.
However, even if - purely hypothetically!
- all these issues will be successfully resolved, then work on the restoration of the destroyed infrastructure of gas pipelines will definitely not begin immediately.
And they are unlikely to end before the coming summer at least: under the most optimistic scenario, which in the current political circumstances - the war in Ukraine, you know - can hardly be considered realizable.
To be realistic, at least two years.
But in the current winter, the Germans, and the Europeans as a whole, will still be better off entering without any illusions at all.
If only because today the injection of gas into European UGS facilities, which the native politicians were so proud of, has been replaced by pumping.
That is, to put it correctly, yesterday it was recorded that the extraction of gas from underground storage facilities in the European Union for the first time since the beginning of April exceeded the injection.
That is, to start asking about what is happening with the European energy sector - and indeed the economy in general - of their own, as it were, national politicians, there is such an opinion that European inhabitants can right now.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.