Why would Putin blow up the pipeline when he could simply shut it off? Right?
You got it
“Why would Putin blow up the pipeline when he could simply shut it off?”
Domestic politics. Europe is weeks away from ending all gas imports from Russia. Putin used to make $20 billion a month selling gas to Europe. That money was about to vanish from the Russian economy.
By blowing up the pipeline and presenting Biden as a villainous mastermind behind the plot Putin can blame the economic crisis on the USA rather than his decision to go to war.
Bingo!
But the same people who told us that President Trump was playing "4-D Chess", the same people who said Jeff Sessions "had a secret plan", the same people who excoriated our comments if we didn't "Trust the Plan!", these are the same people that are telling us Putin was playing 3-D chess and sabotaged his own pipeline. Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh.
Why would Putin blow up the pipeline when he could simply shut it off?
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Note the word in the article: misdirection.