Posted on 09/28/2022 12:19:23 PM PDT by Cathi
The sabotage of the Nord Stream (NS) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) pipelines in the Baltic Sea has ominously propelled 'Disaster Capitalism' to a whole new, toxic level.
This episode of Hybrid Industrial/Commercial War, in the form of a terror attack against energy infrastructure in international waters signals the absolute collapse of international law, drowned by a “our way or the highway”, “rules-based”, order.
The attack on both pipelines consisted of multiple explosive charges detonated in separate branches close to the Danish island of Bornholm, but in international waters.
That was a sophisticated operation, carried out in stealth in the shallow depth of the Danish straits. That would in principle rule out submarines (ships entering the Baltic are limited to a draught of 15 meters). As for prospective “invisible” vessels, these could only loiter around with permission from Copenhagen – as the waters around Borholm are crammed with sensors, reflecting fear of incursion by Russian submarines.
Swedish seismologists registered two underwater explosions on Monday – one of them estimated at 100 kg of TNT. Yet as much as 700 kg may have been used to blow up three separate pipeline nodes. Such amount could not have possibly been delivered in just one trip by underwater drones currently available in neighboring nations.
The pressure on the pipelines dropped exponentially. The pipes are now filled with seawater.
The pipes on both NS and NS2 can be repaired, of course, but hardly before the arrival of General Winter. The question is whether Gazprom – already focused on several hefty Eurasian customers - would bother, especially considering that Gazprom vessels could be exposed to a possible NATO naval attack in the Baltic.
German officials are already spinning that NS and NS2 can “potentially” be out of commission “forever”. The EU economy and EU citizens badly needed that gas supply. Yet the EUrocracy in Brussels – which rules over nation-states – would not follow, because they have been dictated themselves by the Empire of Chaos, Lies and Plunder. A case can be made that this Euro-oligarchy should one day be tried for treason.
As it stands, a strategic irreversibility is already self-evident; the population of several EU nations will pay a tremendous price and suffer serious consequences derived from this attack, short, medium and long term.
Cui bono?
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson admitted that was “a matter of sabotage”. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen admitted “it was not an accident”. Berlin agrees with the Scandinavians.
Now compare it with former Polish Defense Minister (2005-2007) Radek Sikorski, a Russophobe married to rabid US “analyst” Anne Applebaum, who merrily tweeted “Thank you, USA”.
It gets curiouser and curiouser when we know that simultaneously to the sabotage the Baltic Pipe from Norway to Poland was partially opened, a “new gas supply corridor” servicing “the Danish and Polish markets”: actually a minor affair, considering months ago their sponsors were in trouble finding gas, and now it will be even harder, with much higher costs.
NS2 had already been attacked – in the open - all along its construction. Back in February, Polish ships actively tried to prevent the Fortuna pipe-laying vessel from finishing NS2. The pipes were being laid south of – you guessed it – Bornholm.
NATO for its part has been very active on the underwater drones department. The Americans have access to long distance Norwegian underwater drones which can be modified with other designs. Alternatively, professional navy clearance divers could have been employed in the sabotage – even as tidal currents around Bornholm are a serious matter.
The Big Picture reveals the collective West in absolute panic, with Atlanticist “elites” willing to resort to anything – outrageous lies, assassinations, terrorism, sabotage, all out financial war, support to neo-Nazis – to prevent their descent into a geopolitical and geoeconomic abyss.
Disabling NS and NS2 represents the definitive closure of any possibility of a German-Russia deal on gas supplies, with the added benefit of relegating Germany to the lowly status of absolute US vassal.
So that brings us to the key question of which Western intel apparatus designed the sabotage. Prime candidates are of course CIA and MI6 – with Poland set up as the fall guy and Denmark playing a very dodgy part: it’s impossible that Copenhagen was not at least “briefed” on the intel.
Prescient as ever, as early as in April 2021 Russians were asking questions about the military security of Nord Stream.
The crucial vector is that we may be facing the case of a EU/NATO member involved in an act of sabotage against the number one EU/NATO economy. That’s a casus belli. Outside of the appalling mediocrity and cowardice of the current administration in Berlin, it’s clear that the BND – German intel – as well as the German Navy and informed industrialists sooner or later will do the math.
This was far from an isolated attack. On September 22 there was an attempt against Turkish Stream by Kiev saboteurs. The day before, naval drones with English language IDs were found in Crimea, suspected of being part of the plot. Add to it US helicopters overflying the future sabotage nodes weeks ago; a UK “research” vessel loitering in Danish waters since mid-September; and NATO tweeting about the testing of "new unmanned systems at sea" on the same day of the sabotage.
Show me the (gas) money
The Danish Minister of Defense met urgently with NATO’s Secretary General this Wednesday. After all the explosions happened very close to Denmark’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). That may be qualified as crude kabuki at best; exactly on the same day, the European Commission (EC), NATO’s de facto political office, advanced its trademark obsession: more sanctions against Russia, including the certified-to-fail cap on oil prices.
Meanwhile, EU energy giants are bound to lose big time with the sabotage.
The roll call includes the German Wintershall Dea AG and PEG/ E.ON; the Dutch N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie; and the French ENGIE. Then there are those which financed NS2: Wintershall Dea again as well as Uniper; Austrian OMV; ENGIE again; and British-Dutch Shell. Wintershall Dea and ENGIE are both co-owners and creditors. Their fuming shareholders will want serious answers from a serious investigation.
It gets worse: there are no holds barred anymore on the Pipeline Terror front. Russia will be on red alert not only for Turk Stream but also Power of Siberia. Same for the Chinese and their maze of pipelines arriving in Xinjiang.
Whatever the methodology and the actors who were in the loop, this is payback – in advance - for the inevitable collective West defeat in Ukraine. And a crude warning to the Global South that they will do it again. Yet action always breeds reaction: from now on, “funny things” could also happen to US/UK pipelines in international waters.
The EU oligarchy is reaching an advanced process of disintegration at lightning speed. Their window of opportunity to at least attempt a role as a strategically autonomous geopolitical actor is now closed.
These EUROcrats now face a serious predicament. Once it’s clear who are the perpetrators of the sabotage in the Baltic, and once they understand all the life-changing socio-economic consequences for pan-EU citizens, the kabuki will have to stop. Including the already running, uber-ridiculous subplot that Russia blew up its own pipeline when Gazprom could simply have turned off the valves for good.
And once again, it gets worse: Gazprom is threatening to sue the Ukrainian energy company Naftofgaz for unpaid bills. That would lead to the end of Russian gas transiting Ukraine towards the EU.
As if all of that was not serious enough, Germany is contractually obligated to purchase at least 40 billion cubic meters of Russian gas a year until 2030.
Just say no? They can’t: Gazprom is legally entitled to get paid even without shipping gas. That’s the spirit of a long-term contract. And it's already happening: because of sanctions, Berlin does not get all the gas it needs but still needs to pay.
All the devils are here
Now it's painfully clear the imperial velvet gloves are off when it comes to the vassals. EU independence: verboten. Cooperation with China: verboten. Independent trade connectivity with Asia: verboten. The only place for the EU is to be economically subjugated to the US: a tawdry remix of 1945-1955. With a perverse neoliberal twist: we will own your industrial capacity, and you will have nothing.
The sabotage of NS and NS2 is inbuilt in the imperial wet dream of breaking up the Eurasian land mass into a thousand pieces to prevent a trans-Eurasia consolidation between Germany (representing the EU), Russia and China: $50 trillion in GDP, based on purchasing power parity (PPP) compared to the US’s $20 trillion.
We must go back to Mackinder: control of the Eurasian land mass constitutes control of the world. American elites and their Trojan Horses across Europe will do whatever it takes not to give up their control.
“American elites” in this context encompass the deranged, Straussian neo-con-infested “intel community” and the Big Energy, Big Pharma and Big Finance that pays them and who profits not only from the Deep State’s Forever War approach but also wants to make a killing out of the Davos-concocted Great Reset.
The Raging Twenties started with a murder – of Gen Soleimani. Blowing up pipelines is part of the sequel. There will be a highway to hell all the way to 2030. Yet to borrow from Shakespeare, hell is definitely empty, and all the (Atlanticist) devils are here.
Pepe Escobar is an independent geopolitical analyst and author. His latest book is Raging Twenties. He’s been politically canceled from Facebook and Twitter. Follow him on Telegram.
(The views expressed in this article are author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)
Cutting losses and a threat to attack European undersea resources for Europe's support of Ukraine.
I guess deciding which of the Romance langages to learn would depend on how you might use it. Of course there are lots of other languages and families of languages to learn too. Russian and Arabic come to mind these days. With German family heritage I tried German as high school freshman, but the grammar and “the” completely destroyed me and I quite. Sophomore year I started Spanish, and “the” was much simpler. Then it was direct and indirect object that gave me a lot of trouble until something clicked. I did 2 more years and decided to major in Spanish in Csollege. One semester I was taking spoken Spanish and French and grammar translation Italian, interspersed by 2 science courses to clean my mind between classes. Then Sputnic flew and I decided to be a science major. I subsequently got a job as a bilingual Spanish/English secretary for an international NGO with a 10% bonus for the second language. In later years I was self-employed and renovated property. Spanish was extremely useful since US education has sadly neglected educating our native born citizens in the construction trades.
So I would say it is important to think about how you might use whatever language you choose to learn. I was interested in travel and was thinking Latin America. In fact in the NGO job we also had a chance to study some Brazilian Portuguese as we had offices there and I had to read letters and see to whom or what files they should go. If you have to deal with renovation or construction in the US, Spanish will be useful. If your heritage is Portuguese you might want to make that your first Romance language. Travel or research goals would also be a consideration for what language to study.
As to difficulty, I agree Spanish is much easier to speak or write as it does sound like it spells. Italian is also easier in that regard. Portuguese and especially French are a lot harder to pronounce and spell, although French has somewhat more words that are now included in English. Verb endings change a great deal more in Romance languages than they do in English. I was surprised to discover that Subjunctive verb forms are used almost half the time. Having grown up with a first generation German/American mother I see that is a very different life viewpoint. What a difference there is between mother’s “”clean out the garage, and that’s an order, and a Spanish “I hope you get the garage cleaned today.” The German mind expects the garage will be cleaned. The Hispanic mind hopes the garage “might” be cleaned today, In the first case Indicative verb endings are used, in the second case Subjunctive verb endings are used. The two past tenses also require constant monitoring while speaking Spanish. You always have to decide if the past action is permanent or temporary but perhaps ongoing.
Its amazing that little kids can do it but we adults find it much harder, but still fun if you can share your learning with others. My husband was training for a foreign job. This was when Castro was taking over Cuba, so he had to learn Spanish. Then problems started in Africa and they wanted him to learn French. Finally he ended up doing a survey in Brazil and he had to learn Portuguese. I had a South American friend with a brother who wanted to learn English. He and my husband spent many hours together sharing their ignorance of the other’s language, but learning as they went. Once he told them I could not visit because I was sick from eating too much cake. The fact that cake and poop sound similar in Spanish caused him to make an amusing mistake. Another time he was saying “I can’t,” which when mispronounced is “I fart.” He finally spent 4 months traveling throughout Brazil and Peru. Brazil was a more fun job than Peru.
Here is a more complete quote of the gas issue from the article: “Including the already running, uber-ridiculous subplot that Russia blew up its own pipeline when Gazprom could simply have turned off the valves for good.
And once again, it gets worse: Gazprom is threatening to sue the Ukrainian energy company Naftofgaz for unpaid bills. That would lead to the end of Russian gas transiting Ukraine towards the EU.
As if all of that was not serious enough, Germany is contractually obligated to purchase at least 40 billion cubic meters of Russian gas a year until 2030. Just say no? They can’t: Gazprom is legally entitled to get paid even without shipping gas. That’s the spirit of a long-term contract. And it’s already happening: because of sanctions, Berlin does not get all the gas it needs but still needs to pay.”
So it basically comes down to international law and how this payment dispute will work out. First of all the contract language is critical. Proving as fact if Russia turned off the valves or blew up the pipeline weakens their case for payment, but proving the West blew up the pipeline strangthens their case. Providing at this point that International Law can even be practiced in the current context, which perhaps it cannot, especially if it gets a lot worse. Germany might never end up paying.
No, it isn't, and I've been practicing law for nearly three decades. Obviously, the specific language of a contract controls, but the article doesn't appear to be citing to specific language but only a general principle. The spirit of a long term contract requires both sides to be willing to perform. If Russia is offering gas, and Germany refuses to buy (as in sanctions), Germany is still liable. But if Russia is not offering to deliver gas, Germany doesn't have to pay.
Actually, the destruction of the pipeline would likely trigger what is usually referred to as an "impossibility" clause - very common in contracts - that would relieve Russia of the duty to deliver, and Germany of the ability to pay.
Obviously, all that doesn't consider issues of sovereignty and enforceability. There's no way in hell Germany is going to pay for gas it isn't receiving, regardless of Russian claims, so it's all moot anyway.
SNORT.
My reason for studying another language is pretty simple. I always wanted to and now that I’m retired I have the time and need something to keep my brain going.
My reason for choosing Portuguese is maybe silly.
When I was a child we only got two stations on TV. On Sundays one of the stations had documentaries about other countries, their languages, history and culture. I might have been 10 years old when I saw a documentary about Brazil. I remember it was winter, cold, maybe a foot of snow on the ground and the TV was showing me beautiful beaches, green forests and jungles and not a flake of snow in sight! I was laser fixed on the wonder on the TV. It didn’t hurt that all the women were beautiful and the men happy. I’ve had an infatuation with Brazil ever since then.
Anyway, the language study is keeping my mind from getting rusty at least and is rewarding in itself.
He alleges NATO did it, in collusion with Norway and Denmark (wow), and yet somehow all this NATO/Norway/Denmark espionage escaped the notice of Germany and the BND.
it is fascinating to me that indo-european developed the entire gender/declension/conjugation system in complete illiteracy. (the remnants of it are present in most of the IE languages which maintain declensions with genders). it works the other way, of course, the declensions were needed to define how the words related to each other, and would let word order be a lot more flexible.
for an american, with no gender and only two declensions (genetive and nominative), it is a great struggle to learn when to use accusative and dative. throw in having to decline adjectives/adverbs etc. german still has some of that, icelandic has all of it I believe except dual tense, russian has some/a lot of it.
there is some thought among more learned folks than I that language structure influences cultural patterns/behavior.
An example is japanese (highly structured language with all kinds of specific social usage rules built-in). but i cannot commment intelligently on that beyond having read about it.
an example I can discuss is latin american spanish. you will recognize these. forgive the accents, ENG keyboard here.
we say ‘i missed the bus.’ my fault (implied).
sp. says ‘el bus me dejo` the bus left me. (not so much my fault)
I lost my wallet. (i did it)
mi cartera se perdio’. my wallet lost itself. (not me!)
I ran out of money. evasive but clearly I am involved in the reason there is no more money
Se me fue la plata. My money left me! it just sort of up and went away!
This was exactly my point with the Spanish Subjunctive being used almost half the time. A clear declaration of uncertainty. It is rare in English, “if I were king I would... There is a clear patter of abdicating personal responsibility in both these usages. I never got far enough in the other Romance languages to see how completely the subjjunctive was key to their attitudes, but suspect some similatary of usage and effect.
the concept is interesting. I wish I knew enough of various language families to develop a more informed opinion. for latin america, the shoe certainly fits.
Great article.
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