Translation:"We are clearly talking about an act of sabotage carried out at a very professional level. Destroying a section of an underwater pipeline is a difficult task in itself, especially if it requires the most undetectable work without the use of a specially equipped vessel. In the case of Nord Stream, this task was obviously carried out by a highly qualified team of saboteurs with extensive experience of working at significant depths and in the difficult hydrological conditions of the Baltic Sea," he is convinced.According to Nikolai Patrushev, "not every army or special service in the world has swimmers in its ranks who are capable of competently and, most importantly, covertly carrying out such an action.""One of the special services capable of carrying out this task is the famous British Special Boat Service.This is one of the oldest naval sabotage units, which made a name for itself during the Second World War, notes Nikolai Patrushev. By the way, now they prefer not to remember that literally on the eve of the explosion of the Nord Stream, NATO naval exercises were conducted in this area of the Baltic.”
He correctly states that German "version" of sabotage is "ridiculous", which it is, but then again--anything coming out of West's establishment media is ridiculous by default and is nothing more than propaganda. Such as this piece of dung from WSJ:
It is one of the daily reminders that US establishment has NO serious experts in Russia, warfare and economics. You cannot fix it--the system itself is utterly corrupted and non-functional. Per dynamics of SMO--yet another "volunteer" has been kidnapped from the streets of 404 and now will be disposed of at the line of combat contact.
In related news which are not news but repetition of the same shit over and over again:
The destruction (rather minor, all things considered) and fire have been caused highly likely by SAM of whatever is left in terms of Patriots or whatever else in Kiev--the only place which has some pathetic remnants of missile AD in 404.
Yes, as you might expect--infants are a normal presence in Council of Ministers building everywhere. So, sanctions, yes--Russia is quaking in her boots. But Kiev does look somewhat ... smoky today.
But as we all know Nuland abdicated and this is the first and most significant sign of reality dawning on the illiterate and incompetent D.C. swamp. But the whole thing was in the making for weeks now. You see, that just proves my point--Nuland and her neocon cabal stuffed with "Russian experts" with such degrees as political science or journalism (that means not having systematic education) had only one thing going for them--their visceral hatred of Russia and Russian people supported by BS geopolitical theories from second-rate Anglo-American scholarship. Obviously, studying warfare is much harder than studying the BS they teach in Georgetown or Harvard in "international relations" or "government". And here is the result--they went against people who would eat them all for breakfast. But impotent rage of London and D.C. is understandable.
So, what's left for them is what the only thing they can do--sabotage, diversionary actions, pure terrorism, killing Skripal's cat et al. Sergei Naryshkin on record today.
Translation:MOSCOW, March 5 – RIA Novosti.The United States and Great Britain are participating in the training of special operations forces for subversive work against Russia, said the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, in an exclusive interview for Solovyov Live, fragments of which were shown on the Rossiya 1 TV channel.“The Americans, especially the British, participated and are participating in the training of special operations forces and intelligence officers to conduct subversive work against our country,” he said.Thus, according to the head of the department, the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines were blown up by the Anglo-Saxons.As for the United States, they are creating a wide intelligence network both on the territory of Ukraine and in other countries, including those that border Russian territory, Naryshkin noted.“The fact that American intelligence services participated in the training and retraining of Ukrainian intelligence officers is an obvious fact,” Naryshkin added.
So predictable, so trivial, even boring. The attempts of London to parade itself as a meaningful geopolitical player are laughable. The city of London better invest into sanitation and street maintenance than into futile attempts at supporting remnants of geopolitical significance--this is out of UK's league, simple as that. Russia is ready. So, stay tuned.
A classic diversionary (sabotage) act against linear target is blowing up the rail. Immediately note to yourself--rails are blown not for the sake of demolishing the railway, but for the sake of derailing passing train. Derailing the train is the end with railway damage being merely means. For a simple reason--you can repair railway relatively fast, sometimes within a few days, if not hours. The same applies to the bridges such as Crimean Bridge. One can take out one or two spans but one cannot blow up all 19 kilometers (12 miles) of this bridge. And that means that being linear is your greatest advantage. You can blow up 100 meters of a railway, but you cannot blow up 7,000 kilometers of TranSib.
Sabotage at the Crimean Bridge is a classic example of a difficulty the terrorist-sabotage groups face when trying to disable a linear target. As you all know, the traffic over the bridge is already largely restored, including car traffic using remaining lanes, while railroad is fine and continues to operate, which is important for accumulation of the forces in Crimea, including for future operations with the re-deployment through Kherson region. Even for the PR reasons, Kiev, as always, didn't achieve anything of substance. The fact that WaPo--this warmongering lying sack of shit pretending to be a legitimate media--printed "opinion" of some, obviously anonymous, official that it was an SBU "operation" tells one something. Washington directly points out to Kiev as a culprit, despite Kiev not officially admitting it.
Q: Ameican foreign policy department recently publicly indicated the readiness of the United States for "diplomacy with Russia on Ukraine." How could you comment on this signal?
A: The public signals coming from the US Administration in recent days in the context of what is happening in Ukraine combine provocative militancy and chaotic allusions to the possibility of an appropriate Russian-American dialogue.
Secretary of State E. Blinken was vague on this score. He said the US would be ready to respond if Moscow showed "any serious intentions." Meanwhile, a couple of weeks ago, he flatly denied the very possibility of seeking a diplomatic solution.
However, the main thing is the real steps taken by the Americans and their satellites. And they radically contradict the ostentatious rhetoric that claims to be peaceful. The supply of arms to the regime of V. Zelensky is increasing, the number of Western mercenaries and instructors is growing directly “on the ground”, the United States is getting deeper and deeper into the multifaceted support of its clients in Kyiv. And this is against the backdrop of V. Zelensky's insane calls to his masters to launch a preventive nuclear strike on Russia.
Such irresponsible demagoguery, apparently, is beginning to frighten even those who demand to "defeat the Russians on the battlefield." From here, apparently, the flouncing about of the J. Biden team stems, which itself has nurtured evil, it seems, without even thinking about the catastrophic consequences for the world, and most importantly for itself.
As if to confirm what I spoke about yesterday about this fluffy BS about nuclear war emanating from the White House, Pentagon today finally put its foot down:
As I am on record ad nauseam--for the the West SMO is mostly about PR, because combined West and its "leader" have no resources to fight a real conventional war with Russia. Hence, as Zakharova stated, the flouncing about, as if being in a feverish delirium. The US need a deal with Russia, but Medvedev was quite explicit about it--the deal will be primarily about unconditional surrender in economic war. As per SMO, as was expected--the "front" was stabilized and VSU are throwing last reserves at Russia and everyone who has the IQ above room temperature knows now what is coming. The only thing Kiev has left at its disposal are PR acts like sabotage of the Bridge or, which is fully expected, terrorist acts against civilians deep into Russia proper and infrastructure objects, such as metro, public transport, energy control centers among many other, are the targets for Washington and London who use their Kiev stooges to provide for plausible deniability. But, as it is a strategic truism--terrorism is the weapon of the weak. When considering psychopaths running modern West this is what you would expect. After all, the only thing Western militaries excelled in the last 30 years is to kill civilians and blow civilian infrastructure, and the pattern is recognizable immediately.
Reality is, the US was in the damage control mode for a long time now, and terrorism against pipelines is a clear sign of a desperation and is primarily reaction to decisive results of referenda. You just cannot spin anymore the fact that Russia returned to herself a territory one and a half times larger than that of the whole of Benelux, which also happens to be the producer of 80% of (former) Ukraine's GDP. You just cannot spin this with clogging media with useless and meaningless tactical minutiae of VSU "capturing" some village or town, or two, without any real prospects of holding those for long. So, you lash out in desperation, frustration and panic. And, of course, one needs to continue to spew BS.
As I already pointed out--blowing the pipelines should not obscure the real situation:
The dynamics was obvious for a while. Russia is simply shutting EU off because EU is an open enemy of Russia, plus it stole Russian money. So, in overall economic terms it is not unexpected for Russia and necessary measures have been taken. Now EU will have to live without Russian gas and that means a final blow to Germany's, grossly overrated and overvalued, economy and it will also fail to produce any tangible benefits for the US economy, since the US economically right now is a complete mess. Interesting times we live in. Per pure geopolitical and military effect--wait for the developments in Ukraine and I believe it was Scott Ritter who described the outcome for the US in Ukraine as Afghanistan 1.0 but on steroids. I, honestly, expect nothing less, but something tells me that it will be more.
Well, truth is--Gazprom DOES understand, they just say that they don't in order to maintain a public record. But there is a force majeure which is behind 404 shutting off the valve. No, you didn't misread me, I mean it. Two components of this force majeure are:
1. An increasingly pronounced and accelerating collapse of VSU resistance, the signs of which are everywhere, not least through Larry Johnson's work in pointing out this:
Also, Zmeinnyi Island gamble "planned" in Pentagon encapsulated quite well the state of the affairs, when a truck load of VSU hardware and manpower was annihilated both over island itself and in preposition areas. I am on record: Pentagon will not out-think Russian General Staff. So, in general, that brings us to a second, component...
2. Which is THE force majeure which really matters and that one is for the United States. This is the main driver behind this "shutting the valve" thingy because, not only US "narrative" of Russia to be about conquered by glorious Kiev Nazis is falling apart, it is falling apart in a dramatic manner which exposes not only US weakness, both economic and military, but it also creates a huge sabotage undercurrent among US "allies" (you know, lap dogs), who are really not that enthusiastic about providing 404 with weapons anymore. Indeed, the story with German Gepard AD complexes is case in point. Germany is ready to ship them (not that they will make any difference) but there is no proper ammo for them and Germany doesn't produce it anymore... so, you get the idea.
So, the US decides to crack its whip and corral her "allies" into a proper place and show them what happens when they decide to even think about own survival. That is the main reason. You see, EU gets its energy supply turned off step-by-step by the US. This is the only war the US is any good at, blackmail and economic one, military one not so much, and it was inevitable that after the NS2 "closure", other energy supply routes would be cut off for Europe. And that is what we observe now. Democracy, you know, needs sacrifices. Germany is the first to go down, the rest will follow. Even morons at Oilprice get it:
Right, but that is the whole idea, and Russia warned these European dumbfucks about it for years. That they are the US lunch in America's last ditch attempt to prolong her own agony of collapsing economy and increasing social chaos. So, there you are.Russia is not going to save Europe, but she surely wouldn't mind making a shitload of money from its death and she is already doing just that.
UPDATE (of interest). Unlike many Western unnamed sources from military-intel field, Russian ones, while definitely not being 100% correct all the time, have a much better record of "leaking" a reliable info. I doubt that Russian MoD wants to help Pentagon on this one, but here is the info:
Translation: MOSCOW, May 10. /TASS/. The order to attack Serpent Island, during which the Ukrainian armed forces suffered significant losses, was given by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on the advice of British consultants, despite the objections of the leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Such data were reported on Tuesday by a source in the Russian power structures.
"The order for the incredibly stupid attack on Serpents' Island was given personally by Zelensky and demanded to achieve a" media "result by May 9," he said. According to the source, "there is confirmed information that [the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery] Zaluzhny and his General Staff were against this suicidal operation, the idea of which was suggested to Zelensky by his British advisers."
"The finale of this action was supposed to be a joint statement on the so-called" victory "(Ukrainian" victory ") - the British Prime Minister [Boris] Johnson and Zelensky, but in the end only Johnson spoke yesterday, without mentioning a word about the catastrophe of the operation to storm the Serpentine ", - said the source.
You know what? I believe this. Not taking anything away from heroism of, say, British and Polish paratroopers but this rings so familiar. Yes, Operation Market Garden. Monty (a man of some genuine military talents) being pissed off by Ike's, as Monty thought, "overly cautious" broad front strategy got to Ike (as Monty did to everyone else in SHAEF), and he literally squeezed from him his consent for the Market Garden. Monty wanted his own version of Blitzkrieg and Deep Operations and, boy, did this whole thing go down south from the inception and resulted in a very sad fate for the British 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem. This is a very British thing, to put it mildly, to try to pursue lofty objectives while not having required resources.
So, to be objective, let's remove Pentagon as main planner behind Zmeinnyi (Serpent) Island debacle and bestow the dubious "honor" for this spectacular failure on British military. Pentagon, then, wisely sat this one out, not to mention the fact that it already has its hands full with its own, much larger, strategic debacle on the whole theater of operations in 404, not some separate "direction" or tactical episode. What do you expect, in the end, Zelensky is literally a clown, BoJo has degree in English Literature--what can possibly go wrong? (/s).
...of what pragmatic non-ideological approach to foreign policy should be? In many respects it is. Victor Orban is a man who cares about his nation's prosperity and stability. Among major prerequisites for that is a foreign policy, which in case of a relatively small nation such as Hungary, serves interests of Hungarian people and business, not some ideological purposes. Apart from Hungary having a contract with Russia's giant Rosatom for new reactors for Hungary's only Paks nuclear power station, Hungary did this now:
You see how simple it is? Be nice to Russia and Russia will pay back in kind, a really win-win situation. Obviously Ukraine went bananas immediately and manifested 404's main trait which is envy, which automatically transforms in hatred for Russia. Ukraine immediately ran to...of course, European Commission and promised to halt all gas transit to Hungary through Ukraine. You see, these miserable people cannot reconcile themselves to the fact that not only they managed in 30 years of Project 404 turn their country into the utter shithole and poorest one at that in Europe. No, they still cannot face the reality of Russians agreeing with them that Russians and Ukrainians "are non-brothers". Russians say fine, let's be non-brothers. Since you are not relatives, plus your "leadership" is a collection of Nazi-sympathizers or sanctimonious ass holes who care only about themselves, get in line and face consequences.
Maria Zakharova pointed out in her Telegram-channel that:
Translation:The next time our Western partners celebrate the "days of victims of totalitarianism", nodding towards the post-Soviet space, let them remember that denunciations of neighbors on the occasion of envy are a breeding ground for its (totalitarianism) formation.
What most of German politcos fail to understand, of course, is the fact that Russia is not beholden to Germany or Europe. Considering economic and political dynamics of EU, Russia is already hard at work with rerouting her energy supplies to the East, where there are very many customers hungry for Russian energy and, most importantly, those customers do not give a shit about LGBTQRC4ISR rights, about the "freedom of speech" and other propaganda BS the combined West uses for its nefarious purposes, and will gladly pay for what will be (and is being) rerouted from Europe. The objective of Russia's energy policy is to remove EU from the position of primary energy customer and supply it on the bases "as needed" or as "what is available". US "ministry of truth" is already hard at work:
Then it goes into the same "Russia is bad" tropes until in the very cellar of the article it gets to a sensible conclusion that:
Another theory, although analysts consider it somewhat less likely, is
that because Gazprom believes Nord Stream 2 will soon be fully
operational, it may not need to book further capacity elsewhere.
Generally speaking, one cannot communicate with EU and NATO in normal language anymore and the drifting apart will continue. But Hungary is an excellent example of how bilateral relations can work. As you can see the trend in EU-Russian economic relations is very pronounced:
And compared to volume of trade China alone (I underscore it--alone) and despite a dip in exports in 2019 due to pandemic--the trend here is also obvious, the trade grows.
This trade also begins to increasingly substitute the trade with EU. Once one considers Russia's trade with Japan, Republic of Korea, Vietnam and other countries in Asia (such as steadily increasing trade with Indonesia as one example), one can get a clear idea of a steady diminishing in importance of Europe for Russia, not to mention the fact of a dramatic, tectonic shift in Russian attitudes toward the combined West which is viewed (correctly) as hostile, decadent, perverted and unattractive. As I said many times--I never experienced such level of contempt towards the West in Russia, even during the Cold War 1.0 it was different. Never. These attitudes do have a bearing on economy in the long run. But Hungary is definitely not covered by these attitudes because of both personality of Victor Orban and bilateral steady relations. In the end, even such an uncomfortable partner (due to Erdogan's expansionist aspirations) as Turkey sees her trade relations with Russia on the level ANY EU nation, including totally confused Germany, can only dream about.
$100 billion? Absolutely. As I said, Europe is becoming not that important for Russia and it is all for the better. So, Germany should keep in mind that one day she may wake up and find no good will left in Russia and for that she can blame only herself. Eventually, the transit through 404 will be stopped and this shithole of a nation will exist only on the handouts from those who helped to turn it into what it is today. Germany played and continues to play a huge role in creating this cesspool in the middle of European continent and Russians do keep the score.
To have normal, like in not a perpetual war of a different variety, relations between Russia and the US? The answer is rather simple--the United States views Russia as an existential threat. But that is a blanket, however correct, statement, the devil is in details. Let me explain. I am on record for years that the field of Russia Studies in the US is a wasteland. Even Matthew Rojansky, whose candidacy has been successfully sabotaged recently by neocon mafia which infested US foreign policy establishment top bottom, is not really an "expert" in Russia--he is an "expert" in US "think-tankdom" echo-chamber hustle and rubbing shoulders with big honchos, which then migrate onto CVs and Resumes for bearers to be recycled in the cesspool of Beltway "expertdom". The fact that Rojansky doesn't want an outright war with Russia and passes for a "realist" in D.C. was enough to remove him from the pool of "Russia Experts" trying to make it into the Biden Admin. Well, even an iota of a common sense towards Russian-American relations is a disqualifying trait in D.C.
Now recall Alexander Vindman, A Ukrainian Jew in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel who decided that he, not the President of the United States, is to define what kind of relations the United States must have with Ukraine and Russia. When one has such people as Vindman and a cabal of neocons being omnipresent in the establishment, it is bad enough. But then comes a "heavy artillery" of US main stream media, which are literally a propaganda machine which drives a complete destruction of Russian-American relations on the American side and "experts" there range from psychopaths such as Max Boot, deranged and confused non-binary russophobes such as Masha Gessen, to some butt-hurt ignoramuses such as "Doctor" Stephen Blank, who though it possible sending US Navy's ships to... the Sea of Azov. As you may have noticed already, a huge portion of this army of psychopaths consists of former Soviet or Russia's citizenry, primarily, but not exclusively (let's be objective), of a Jewish descend, who, instead of learning and working for the benefit of the American national interests, among which not being wiped off the map by Russia, should be a primary one, are in it for settling all kinds of accounts and grievances, most of them totally made up and fake, with Russia. If it takes US bureaucracy and sacrificing US interests, so be it in their opinions.
But what about middle level "journalist", are there any people of common sense who view Russian-American relations as crucial for global stability? Hm. Here is an example of yet another former Soviet "journo" (euphemism for not being educated), a graduate of the Moscow State University and MBA writing on the issues of modern geopolitics and Russia from Toledo, Ohio. His name is Mike Sigov.
As is the case with many former "Russians" who get to write for all kinds of US media outlets, few of them really have any background in the issue of modern geopolitics and fields adjacent to it. What they have, which ultimately qualifies them for spreading mostly BS, is their ability to read and speak Russian and navigate Moscow Metro. They also have a lot of "feelings" towards their place of birth and as a result one gets such a mental excrement as Sigov provides:
Ukraine has long been pressing NATO to admit it as a member, but the
defense alliance has been reluctant so far to expedite the long process
of extending its membership to Ukraine, without openly denying it one. NATO
membership would all but secure Ukraine from Russian aggression but
also would mandate that all the member countries — the United States
included — treat such an act as a war on each one of them as well. To
be sure, Ukraine's accession to NATO would increase the stakes for the
United States and other members of the alliance in Ukraine. The alternative may be worse, however.
Sigov, having no clue what he is writing about and calling on Ukraine being admitted to NATO, should understand one very simple constant of modern geopolitics--Russia can annihilate any force in Eastern Europe, including combined NATO forces, even without the use of nuclear weapons and in this case, Russia will end Ukrainian statehood, much less Ukrainian armed forces, in a matter of days. Yes, Russians do not want this shithole of a country on their balance, but if push comes to shove, what will happen will be more than just annihilation of Ukraine as we know it today--a Nazi shithole and a used condom for neocons--Russia will demonstrate a complete military impotence of the United States and NATO which will be left to the only device they have at their disposal, you guessed it, propaganda. Russia CAN reject Europe, Europe CANNOT reject Russia and if Mr. Sigov doesn't understand that, I am sorry, he should have chosen a serious field of study to wrap his brains around this simple fact.
Yet, this doesn't prevent him from agitating for a situation which could be much worse than the Cuban Missile Crisis, because the United States, having very limited conventional, not to speak of combined arms, capabilities will have no chance other than commit whatever troops it will able to assemble, for annihilation in Ukraine and will, being inherently nuclear-biased country, resort to escalation towards nuclear threshold, because what the United States doesn't like is to lose big. It will not get any bigger than getting a death wish of fighting Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine granted. The moment any announcement about Ukraine "joining" the NATO is made, that seals the fate of not just Ukraine, it seals the fate of Europe and of the United States. Mr. Sigov, in a fine tradition of "Russian" (wink, wink) immigration to the US, and having no viable skills other than spreading BS and grievances, provides an Exhibit A of a "materiel" which dominates America's field of "Russia Studies" and foreign policy establishment, and which bears a huge share of responsibility for royally fucking it up for the US, and the world, in the time the US desperately needs not only face saving but a dramatic rethinking of its suicidal in its sheer incompetence foreign policy, which bankrupted the country and exposed it as a big bully capable only of big words.
Yet, Mike Sigov is an embodiment of Russian-American troubles. The United States' government institutions are neoconised and ukrainised thoroughly, top-bottom, and that is why any semblance of normality in Russian-American relations is impossible and, in fact, they will continue to deteriorate and for that, the United States has only itself to blame. I omit here sheer idiocy of American geopolitical "thinking" of the last 30 years which should be studied as a severe case of a delusion--I wrote three books on that, and may yet write another one--but even some weak signals from Biden Admin about desire to talk to Russia, in a feeble attempt to "free" dwindling and grossly overstated resources to fight China, even these signals are successfully distorted, suppressed and the transmitter is sabotaged, because the United States' foreign policy is completely subverted by ethnic and religious mafias operating within the establishment and media. If Putin-Biden summit happens, in the end, we will see what happens after it and I don't hold my breath, because the United States is non-agreement capable entity and armies of Mike Sigovs are standing by, ready to sabotage any possible move towards normalization of Russian-American relations. That is why such a normalization is not possible in the foreseeable future. That is not to mention that Russia and China seem to be committed to each-other in a geopolitical sense and the US has nothing, zilch, nada to offer Russia.
In related news, new Russian Armed Forces Cathedral held an Easter Liturgy yesterday.
I can only imagine what US "Russian Experts" think looking at it.
I mean Frau Kanzlerin begins to suspect that it is not about Russia or "democracy", it is about devouring Western Europe and putting Germany at the altar of America's desperation to preserve an illusion of own hegemony, for just a little bit longer, as a first sacrificial victim. The rest of Europe will follow. Today she figured it out, sort of...
Frau Merkel forgot only one thing, Nord Stream 1 (aka NS) was completed in 2011-12, in the times when, despite the United States already being vehemently opposed to this pipeline, it was a really bad idea to admit to Europeans that they were being held merely as a meal ready to eat (MRE) by the United States, which called them still "partners" and "allies". At that time, on Obama's watch, everything in the US was supposed to be running smoothly and efficiently, you know "the finest fighting force in history", Obama's uncle liberating Auschwitz and things of this nature. The going was good still, or at least it was viewed as good, and it was possible to play the game of "allied relations" and "common values" with Europeans who thought that the US was in Europe to "protect" them.
Well, it is 2021 and we all know the score, more or less. The United States cannot compete with Russia or China and is in a terminal, for the America's self-proclaimed hegemony, decline; to stop it America needs Europeans to become food. Unsurprisingly, those in Europe who have some brains left after a thorough brainwashing and blackmailing do not want to become food for the United States. Who would? Well Poland and Baltic States with Ukraine would, but they are merely jackals circling the table with the main course on it, or, as Ukraine, are used condoms to be thrown into the trash bin. The main course is Germany, because once it is eaten, the rest of Europe will follow. Now Germany's colorless and not very bright Frau Merkel notes:
“I have the impression that with Nord Stream 2 we may be waging a
conflict that is much wider, and touches upon the question of the extent
to which we want to trade with Russia, especially in the energy
sector,”
The hell you say, Einstein. Russia can live without Germany, in fact Russia's very successful import-substitution program was launched precisely to achieve this goal--living without dependence on Europe. It is Germany which is an occupied country and which cannot admit to itself that it is being slowly cooked by the US to achieve German industrial collapse to open the road for both American (that means Russian ones bought by US and re-sold to Germany for much higher price) hydrocarbons and industrial products. One shot, two rabbits, the American thinking goes, "opening" German market while making German products much less competitive at the American one. That's the plan anyway and to implement it, Germany must be denied Russia's affordable energy. Nord Stream 2, thus, delenda est.
There is one problem here, though, for America and her lapdog UK, America's geopolitical thinking and planning, such as Skripal Affair, Czech 2014 explosion of munitions storage, allegedly by Russians, with ensuing diplomatic comedy, or attempts to light up several simultaneous conflicts around Russia, not least through attempts at the overthrow of government of Belarus--all of those attempts failing spectacularly--are just some indicators of an extreme detachment of the US establishment from the reality and its inability to face facts. US will throw under the bus anyone, if need be, such as it happened with Czech republic, always heavy on Russophobia, and these all are desperate attempts by the US in trying to prevent integration of West European economies into the colossal Eurasian market being formed by China and Russia. As I wrote two weeks ago:
So, Russia just goes about her business because she knows the game, she knows the score and she long ago calculated the United States' moves, which are not, frankly, that difficult to predict. Scott Ritter is way more than me informed about the underwater currents inside the Beltway and he may well be right when stating this:
But something tells me that it is now too little, too late and cleaning what amounts to US foreign policy Stables of King Augeas will require a man of Herculean abilities and courage, especially after the wasteland left in domestic and foreign policies by America's (and Israeli-first) neocons the likes of Kagans, whose intellectual abilities are inversely proportional to their gigantic ambitions, and whose damage to Russian-American relations and America herself is profound and not easily fixed, if it is possible at all. When even meek and cowardly Frau Merkel begins to understand that the bottom is in sight, that tells you something.
I said it many times--for the United States Europe is just a market, the lunch to be eaten to extend the life of a buckling Empire, and EU better get used to itself as being nothing but a consumable. A sacrifice for the greater good to be brought at the altar of democracy and its main exporter and an expert in how democracy is supposed to work and what it means. As Handelsblatt reports:
Machine Translation:The Americans could soon be ready for the next strike against Nord Stream 2.If Russia tries to complete the missing kilometers of the pipeline in the Baltic Sea, the House of Representatives and the Senate are ready to enact another sanction law, it is said in diplomatic circles in Washington.This time it could hit the European investors involved in the project, or possibly the companies that want to buy the gas should it ever flow.It could all happen very quickly, it is said, possibly in February or March.
Germans worry. Of course they should--they killed their own energy sector (and continue to damage it as I type this).
Concern is growing in the German economy. "Without Russian natural gas, ambitious climate protection goals cannot be achieved in Germany in the short and medium term if we want to maintain affordable electricity prices and thus an energy-intensive industry," urged Oliver Hermes, Chairman of the East Committee of German Business, in a recent speech. His appeal: The EU must learn to defend itself. "If we don't find an effective answer to such extraterritorial sanctions, the European economy will become a game ball for Americans and Chinese."
Hello, Germany? Read my lips, or, rather, read my syllables: you CANNOT have affordable energy without nuclear and cheap gas, period. And no, Russia is not going to allow you to employ her mammoth electric grid and generating capacity to compensate for your sheer idiocy when your electricity oscillations will threaten your grid and economy. All your "climate protection goals" are a complete anti-scientific BS, a figment of imagination of ignorant lefties who worship Musk and Bezos, virtue signal even when taking a shit at a public restrooms in Bundestag, while masturbating to Greta Thunberg. These are your elites Germany (I omit here the rest of Europe), deal with it. I understand this statement, in the end of this piece:
The European market is just as important for US companies as the American market for companies from Europe.Counter sanctions would be painful accordingly.However, the government in Washington should consider such a decision by the Europeans as the ultimate escalation.The consequences for the transatlantic relationship could hardly be calculated.
Exactly, and none of you, including France, Low Countries and Scandinavia will be competitive against US goods and very expensive energy once you achieved your "climate protection goals" and stop being competitive anywhere. So, the only faint hope for Germany are those Russkies who, frankly, do not give a shit about US sanctions and will complete the pipe. But in the end, a whole of Europe will do as the United States tells it to do and the United States will tell Europe to de-industrialize because the United States wants to live too. And there will be no consequences for transatlantic relations because all European elites are transatlantic elites, conditioned through indoctrination, blackmail and bribes to do what they are told to do by their masters in D.C. Time for Europe to experience allied relations to the full extent of the American geopolitical shaft. In the end, Europe and some parts of Latin America are the only places where American orders still matter.
Meanwhile, Russia is not interested anymore in Greater Europe, because Russia is too deep into Greater Eurasia project and she already made her "civilizational" mind up--EU is not in Russian plans in any way, let alone for some sort of integration. To integrate with WHO in Europe, and WHY? I always said that never again should the foot of Russian soldier step onto European soil under any circumstances. Let them deal with each-other and, something tells me we didn't see the last of Color Revolutions and Democratic Regime Changes--Europe seems like a good candidacy, plus US military democracy-radiating bases are already there, including in Germany, many of them. After all, Germany is an occupied country by those nasty Soviets, ah, wait...silly me, USSR doesn't exist anymore, but still, and Germany should behave herself as one. Europe made her choice long time ago, she must bear responsibility for that choice, even if it will be unpleasant and a painful process. I am sure an injection of a new doze of transatlantic values is long overdue for Europe. Repeat after me: Greta, Greta, Greta....
P.S. If anyone thinks that Nord Stream-2 sabotage may hit Russia, they should think twice, Russia, of course, wants to exclude Ukraine from any transit, but think strategically for a while--Germany is already hurting because of the sheer lunacy of her internal economic policies. Now get this: if European goods become very expensive and Russia has an economy which produces pretty much everything--put 2 and 2 together. Plus, of course, unlike Germany Russia has enough TNT equivalent to not give a shit about threats from anyone. I'll give you a hint:
