Free Republic

As Ed pointed out yesterday, there were indications from Danish and Swedish authorities that the leaks from the Nord Stream pipelines were the result of explosions, i.e. deliberate sabotage not accidents. All eyes immediately turned to Russia who has been playing games with gas deliveries through the pipelines for months. The NY Times created this graph showing the gas supply over time. As you can see, it took a sudden dip in June and then was up and down until this month when they shut it off indefinitely. (snip) Still, with the gas already cut off, why bother sabotaging the...

However, the attacks on Nord Stream are more dire than anything we previously saw. This act of sabotage signals a point of no return. The economic damage caused by these attacks is going to land Europe in a recession as deep as the recession of 2009. The environmental damage is immense, with millions of tons of methane polluting the ocean and environment. This winter, Europe is doomed to face the worst energy crisis since the Arab oil embargo of 1974, or worse. European leaders have already identified and condemned Russia as the obvious culprit. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki described...