“This happens just as the UK is having it’s coldest night in a century...”
Moreover, if the article is correct in that “temperatures plung[ed] to as low as -10C,” then it couldn’t possibly be one of the coldest nights in recent British memory. Ten below is pretty darned cold when we’re talking degrees Fahrenheit, but -10 Celsius is an unimpressive 14 degrees *above* 0 Fahrenheit (to convert degrees Celsius to Fahrenheit, multiply by 9, divide by 5, and then add 32). I’ve never been in the UK during winter, but I know that it’s pretty far north and that it can’t be unheard of for it to get colder than 14 degrees during winter nights.
So I think that the Daily Mail is engaging in a bit of hyperbole regarding the extent of the cold spell facing the UK right now, which is consistent with the alarmist tone of the article. But I hope that Europeans react by extracting more natural gas to bridge the gap in the short run and by permitting fracking so as to end Russia’s extortion in the long run.
OP is just trying to stir the pot here. Nobody else is reporting this as a major story. He’s deliberatly confusing two issues.
Russia needs other countries to pay for their pipelines because they are broke. So the Chicoms got a great deal and now Russia wants the EU to pay for a NEW pipe through Turkey. That’s what’s going on here. The current contracts expire in 2020 I believe.
It’s really funny that Putinists think a gas station like Russia is going to dictate to the EU. Basically the entire Russian economy will collapse and be state owned by the end of the year if banking sanctions are not lifted. Russia isn’t doing the dictating now. No way they are going to cause big problems for the EU right before sanctions are being reviewed.