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Europe, which was heavily reliant on Russian natural-gas imports before Russia invaded Ukraine, is already in the grips of an energy crisis. The damage to the Nord Stream pipelines, and threats by Gazprom, the Kremlin-owned natural-gas giant, to end supplies to Europe through Ukraine, are deepening the crisis as winter approaches and demand for energy rises.
On Monday, Danish and Swedish authorities detected three severe leaks affecting the four Nord Stream pipelines, which run from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea. Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Nord Stream was intended as the main artery for natural-gas exports from Russia to Europe.
/sarcasm
MSN is highly regarded for accuracy and unbiased reporting, so…
Given what Poland said (Thank You, USA!), I guess it went like this:
Russia asked the US to destroy the pipelines, and the US complied.
Yep...sure.
Why would Putin sabotage his own source of revenue? The accusations make no sense at all.
L
How the 1999 Russian apartment bombings led to Putin's rise to power
Satter: In the summer of 1999 the approval rating of former President Yeltsin was 2%. There appeared to be no chance whatever that Putin, who was designated by Yeltsin as his successor could possibly become the next Russian president. The apartment bombings changed everything. It was said after those buildings went up that now we're living in a completely different country.
More than 200 people were killed in the September bombings. Russia blamed Chechen militants, triggering the second Chechen War.
Satter: Putin came forward as the savior of the country. He was put in charge of a war in Chechnya. The bombings were blamed on Chechens without any evidence whatsoever, and as a result of the successful prosecution of that war, against all odds he was elected the next Russian president. The apartment bombings appear to be the keystone of a plot to confuse Russian public opinion, to create terror, to distract the Russian public, to redirect their anger away from the corruption that had flourished under Yeltsin, and toward the Chechens who had had for a number of years a semi-independent government in Chechnya and in that way create the conditions for the Russian people to vote in what they absolutely consciously did not want, which was a successor to Yeltsin who would protect Yeltsin.
There was an enormous amount of material in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta which pointed to the possibility and in fact to the likelihood that the authorities themselves blew up those buildings. At the same time a fifth bomb was discovered in the basement of an apartment building in Ryazan, which is a city southeast of Moscow. And I went to Ryazan after the bomb was discovered and diffused to talk to local residents and it was clear from those conversations that what took place was a genuine attempt to blow up a fifth building. The authorities said that this was only a training exercise, but it was nothing of the kind.
And what was most important was that three persons were arrested for putting a bomb in a building in Ryazan. They turned out to be not Chechens, not terrorists in the usual sense, but rather agents of the Federal Securities Service which is the FSB.
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-1999-russian-apartment-bombings-led-to-putins-rise-to-power-2018-3
Riiiight… because Putin wouldn’t want to bribe the Germans with oil so after he shut off the pipes he blew them up on Germanys side to…ensure he couldn’t sell them anymore oil.
All Puty-puts fault.
(It was either the Germans or the US… maybe China… but my money is on the first two)
Hey, I think Nancy Kerrigan clubbed herself in the knee and then framed Tonya Harding.
Hey stupid... Russian controls the tap. There the one that put gas in the pipe to you
If you don’t want to supply something your don’t blow up your own factory or oil field or pipe line.. your just turn off the tap
It would be a shame if something happened to other infrastructure like those trans Atlantic fiber cables.
I don’t believe it was Putin.
Blowing the line takes Putin’s leverage away from him and simultaneously prevents Germany from making a side deal to get the gas back on.
My sympathies are with Ukraine in this war, but that has no bearing on who blew the pipeline. Blowing the pipeline makes total sense as a way of taking gas off the table as a pressure point. It makes zero sense for Putin to have ordered it himself.
We can come up with tricky chess moves to explain why he would benefit from blowing his own pipeline, but in this case the simple and direct answer is the right one. I think it was us. We obviously can’t admit it, even if everyone knows.
Why would Russia sabotage its own pipeline when they can shut it off at the source by closing a valve? This makes zero sense.
It would, however, fit the agenda of the Biden administration which would be stupid enough to think blowing up the gas pipe line is a way to cut off Russia from ever selling gas to Europe so alternative pipe lines now become a no-choice, and more expensive, option. It would also push the green-new-deal agenda by driving up the price of fossil fuel to even more exorbitant levels. This sort of reckless behavior has the U.S. State Dept and Nuland written all over it, along with the covert help of the CIA.
Who knows? lol. Only thing for certain is Putin lies and Biden lies.
This was a dumb move by U.S. State Dept, with the help of the CIA. Nuland has orchestrated a string of disasters (e.g. Afghanistan withdrawal, negotiating with Iran), and this will be another. Having blown up the Russian gas pipeline, the idiots in the State Dept fail to consider the Russians could blow up the pipeline feeds of other European countries. the net result will be no gas just as Winter sets in.
I cannot wrap my head around why Russia would destroy its own pipelines. Those pipelines would theoretically be a huge chip at the bargaining table should negotiations break out. It just makes no sense.
Anyone know how deep the water is at the rupture points?
If it is hundreds of feet deep, a ship would need to come to a full stop to plant explosives or grapple the pipe.
Someone would register that - satellite photo, radar screens of nearby ships, local seismic events, etc.
It’s like Katyn.
1943: The Russians did it!
1945: The Germans did it!
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Nordstream was blown up just as the Baltic pipeline came on line. What a bit of bad luck for the Ruskies and good luck for the freezing Germs.
The Russians had already shut off the flow of gas from Nordstream 1, and Nordstream 2 hasn’t yet come on line. Nobody can turn up the flow except for the Russians. Given these facts, why would Russia want to destroy the pipelines that bring it in so much in the way of hard currency earnings? Yes, there’s a dispute now, but that won’t last forever...as the demand for natural gas will - someday, “the spice will flow” and Russia will be earning tens of billions per year again.
The only reason that I can think of is that they might want to frame the US for destroying it, and thereby split the Europeans (and especially the Germans) from us, and thereby halt the flow of arms to Ukraine (and, as a bonus, impede any opposition to future Russian aggression). After all, Grandpa Hairsniffer promised to shut down Nordstream if Russia invaded Ukraine, and Victoria Neuland point blank said that we would destroy it, so framing the US wouldn’t be difficult...or maybe we actually did it in order to force direct conflict with Russia.