This hurts Russia more than it helps them. Turning off the spigot on their end seems a lot easier.
Then when the war ends they could turn the gas back on and make money.
Who knows they could be this stupid, but it would take some special sort of stupid.
No Putin is not that stupid. You first instinct was right he would have just turn off the flow. Joe Biden on the other hand is just that stupid and then some
You're not thinking this through far enough.
If, and it's a big "if," if Putin did blow up his own Nordstream 1 and 2 pipelines, he did it so that even if he is removed from power, Europe is going to suffer.
His successor can't say to Europe "see, that evil Putin is gone, we're nice guys in charge now, so we can turn the gas back on and everybody will be happy again."
The destruction of the pipelines ensures that no matter what, Europe is going without Russian natural gas for a minimum of two more years. Two winters of freezing. Two years of reduced industrial output. Two years of economic hardship.
This was Putin's middle finger to Europe.
The drones around the drilling rigs in the region, are an
interesting aspect of this.
If the U. S. did sabotage the pipeline, does that mean
they would entertain hitting the oil rigs? I don’t think
so. Look, I could be wrong, but I don’t think the U. S.
leadership as addled as it is, would go that far.
Russia on the other hand might, if they could lay it off
on the U. S.
This is an interesting situation. It raises all sorts of
double and triple think situations.
Its ridiculous Putin could just close pipeline at will. The MSM really think we are that stupid.
Who knows they could be this stupid, but it would take some special sort of stupid.
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That has been self-evident since their invasion began.
“This hurts Russia more than it helps them. Turning off the spigot on their end seems a lot easier.”
But they couldn’t blame the U.S.
I am not saying this is what happened, just addressing these fanciful theoreticals.
European countries are pivoting away from Putin’s oil and gas. So in 2 years there would be nothing to turn on
Why would Russia damage/destroy part of its own pipeline, knowing they'd lose a precious commodity? It makes no sense. It would be like Ford or General Motors damaging all the cars on the assembly line.
I agree.
There may be some serious internal “discussion” in Russia about where to go from here. Russia literally has no way to ship more than half its gas production of last year. The infrastructure to “fix” this is 8+ years out. That’s ok for them while prices are high, but, eventually other supplies will increase (largely driven by those high prices!) and prices will settle down. Putin’s opponents may be thinking that if they knock off Putin (and enough of his pals) they can offer gas deliveries as a negotiating lever, and forestall loss of so much market share. Popping the gas lines to Europe undercuts such a plan.
In addition, it is likely that Russia simply intends to sow dissension and finger pointing between NATO and EU allies. This is, after all, their MO.
The two goals are not exclusionary.