A lot of confusion in the West about the real Russian motivation for this war… The hit on Dugin should help illuminate the ratiocinative muck at play in old Muskoxv…
Anyway, not that it matters, but I was distressed about the Chomsky camp of Western leftist academia hopping on the bandwagon of American/NATO escalationism – ie.: blaming Ukraine for Russia’s invasion. Because so many bright people have chosen to ignore the actual reasons why Putin wanted to invade, which perhaps are more concerned with: 1) a land grab 2) ethno-linguistic chauvinism 3) not much else…
In fact, my first impression from the very outset of the war was simply that Putin aims to destroy Ukraine as a nation of people. He and Dugin would just as soon see Ukraine reduced to a ghost country… This war can only accelerate the mass exodus of Ukrainian people from the country. Before the war, the population of Ukraine was declining at a steady rate… And now? Like water running down a drain…
…I think Mr. Orwell saw things clearly, in a way… Yes? No?
I think I saw more people from the right questioning the US’ support for Ukraine than the left. I also think while Putin is all about 1 and 2, keeping Russia’s position as the primary energy supplier for the rest of Europe is Putin’s primary goal. Now that everyone knows his plan, and still can’t do anything about it, it gives Putin more power to lord that position over Europe, provided he also stops all alternative pipelines from being built or operating.
Lol zero chance of that. Your well out of touch. Sorry to burst your bubble but Chechens are now elite urban fighters kicking ass with great gusto for Putin in Ukraine.
And lol at “savagely” as if all the usa wars on Iraq, Afghanistan,Vietnam, Syria, Libya etc etc etc were not “savage”. Hilarious stuff thanks for the giggle.
As to this, unless you know some more secrets about geopolitics or a hidden secret pipeline from Russia to Europe, to the best of my knowledge Putin has lost the European market for oil and gas. So I don’t understand… Also, because there are plenty of other pipelines and it’s easy to transport gas/oil by tanker, a short hop to Europe…
The Qataris will sell more to Germany and look how the Saudis are holding back scaling up production in order to profiteer. Saudi-Aramco just enjoyed a mega half-year net profit of almost 90 billion dollars… The war is a great excuse for Exxon, BP and Arabia to line their pockets at everyone’s expense.
Meantime Putin is selling more fossil fuels to China and India… South Korea is pumping out fancy new weapons systems for export… Oil and war profit corps and nations nowhere near poor Ukraine, which is still expected to grow and export crops enough to feed its traditionally starving markets in Sudan, Somalia, Egypt, Lebanon, etc…
How can Putin lose that market when there is no alternative? Europe can get by using LNG when it’s warm. Once everyone turned on their house heating, they aren’t going to have the infrastructure or the money to keep on. It’s not like they’ve refused to get nature gas from Nord Stream 1 either.
They can boycott Putin during the summer, but winter’s comin’.
Yes, but the media makes it seem impossible to source gas elsewhere, when it isn’t… the sad fact is that it’s the oil companies holding everyone hostage.
Do you get that? They are responsible for making the product unaffordable, not the war …
This article shows a map of other pipe routes… And LNG tankers are a dime a dozen…
In order to import LNG efficiently, you would also need to have hubs, preferably extending out into the ocean, that then connects to the pipelines back on land. Right now most European countries simply don’t have those infrastructure in place. Many nations, such as Japan and Taiwan also already depend on LNG to function, and Europe now has to compete for the same resources. The only upside is that now China is getting cheap Russia gas, they are cutting back on their LNG.
From your own article: “But there aren’t enough LNG terminals in Europe. This will be a problem for Germany, particularly.”
You should read this Natural gas storage - Wikipedia. TL;DR, the infrastructure in Germany is optimized to handle natural gas flowing through a pipeline, and not LNG. It does not matter how many LNG tankers are out there currently. First of all, the US does not have enough to supply Europe, and even if it has the capacity, the ports and storage types in Europe are currently of the wrong variety.
Come on, it’s not just Japan. JP Morgan, the biggest bank in the world is back to trading Russian bonds. Just give it a couple of months, and they’ll be the lead underwriter of a fresh batch of Russian bonds.
Sad to see the EU has still not stopped taking Russian Tourist Visa applications. Finland finally decided to cut them by 90%. Happily I am hearing that the border guards both in Finland and the Baltics are making their own rules though as they have the final say on the matter who comes and goes. They are cancelling visas issues by other countries on the border and turning people back for the tiniest reason. Hopefully EU can soon just shut the border down. Until the war is over there is no need for Russian to come over.
And I do mean tourists visas. Visas for family reasons etc I am ok with.
After Finland took out Covid restrictions there is a steady stream of cars coming over the border. Lots of Russian spoken in Helsinki though I am not good enough to differentiate Russians from Ukrainians (in the cases were it would be possible.
It is pretty basic to convert or retrofit a terminal to offload LNG. They would need large pressure vessels for temp storage.
Don’t forget, Germany has committed to get off the fossil addiction ahead of the rest of Europe. Denmark, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands will build gargantuan wind farms by 2050…
Media makes it seem more difficult than reality… Change is only a matter of making it…
You say it’s pretty basic, which we’ll just have to disagree with, but doing all the things you suggested also requires … energy which is already in short supply. Let’s not talk 2050. Let’s focus on this year first. Winter is coming. What is the strategy here? Group hug every 10 minutes?
