Russia forges on with Europe gas project despite US sanctions threat

AFP ^ | May 23, 2019 | Andrea PALASCIANO

[nathanbedford]

I am yet to see modern Russia destroying other nations for vested interests.

That's funny, the people in the Baltic states and in Poland are very nervous because they saw Russia destroying Georgia, Crimea, and the Dunbos section of Ukraine.

I haven’t seen a son of Russian vice-president taking a seat on board of a German gas company.

No but you have seen a Chancellor of Germany doing the same after he exercised actual power to connect the gas lines.

And they aren’t getting around persuading nations doing business with the US to ditch mutually profitable projects for politically charged unprofitable Russian projects.

But they are asking Americans to subsidize them and they are undercutting in other ways the NATO alliance and efforts to contain Russian aggression in places like Ukraine, Syria, the Arctic and in the Persian Gulf.

[NorseViking]

Ukraine and Georgia are doing just fine comparing to Syria and Lybia.
As for Poland and Baltics they aren’t doing anything to prompt Russian reaction and pretty much safe for that reason.
As for Schroeder I don’t know really see how the projects couldn’t take without him. It has obvious economical sense. Energy as a ‘Russian political weapon’ is a fake hypothetical concept.
As for NATO I don’t think Europe really needs it too.

[nathanbedford]

Res Ipsa Loquitor

[NorseViking]

Hmmm. I don’t see how this principle applies here.

[nathanbedford]

Ukraine and Georgia are doing just fine comparing to Syria and Lybia.

Georgia is occupied and Ukraine is at war. A refugee from Ukraine lives down the street and she Has much to say about the brutality of the Russians.

As for Poland and Baltics they aren’t doing anything to prompt Russian reaction and pretty much safe for that reason.

Appeasement has a poor historical record of securing safety.

Energy as a ‘Russian political weapon’ is a fake hypothetical concept.

Russia has threatened to turn off the gas supply to Ukraine “by the end of the week”, sparking fears of a potential fuel shortage across the whole of Europe. (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/putins-gas-threat-what-happens-if-russia-cuts-the-gas-to-europe-10074294.html)

As for NATO I don’t think Europe really needs it too.

No, it is much safer to rely on appeasement.

It is this last that prompted me to observe that the thing speaks for itself, meaning your worldview.

[NorseViking]

I understand your points. Might be called a partisan approach.

[nathanbedford]

I just ran across this wonderfully expressive partisan approach uttered by Conrad Black quoted in another thread: Angela Merkel could have been Bismarck in drag without the militarism, and she has surrendered to the Greens and made Germany an energy-vassal of Russia while expecting the US to pay for its defense.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3751794/posts