It seems that the logic of our Western colleagues obeys the mathematical law of inverse proportionality when it comes to gas affairs.
And the equation looks like this: the less time remains until the full commissioning of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline, the higher the degree of media and political hysteria in certain regions of the Western Hemisphere. We are not talking here about Ukraine and its wet energy fantasies, hysteria there is a permanent state. We are talking about those who previously had the ability to independently assess challenges and threats, at least to themselves.
Let’s go.
Recently, former Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek said that Europe has “the last chance” to stop Nord Stream-2.
He called for blocking the project, appealing to the alleged non-fulfillment by Russia of the conditions for certification of the gas pipeline. His compatriot, an “expert” from Poland, Daniel Chizhevsky generally advised to rewrite the infrastructure facility to European companies, that is, simply to give Nord Stream-2 to a conglomerate of European Union firms represented by Royal Dutch Shell, OMV, Engie, Uniper and Wintershall.
Overseas specialists also do not stand aside. US Assistant to the President for National Security Jake Sullivan is trying to correct the vassals’ perception of reality, saying that “Russia is using gas as a weapon.”
Have the so-called grandees left out? Of course not.
Boris Johnson, through his press secretary, reports that Russia has deliberately reduced gas supplies to the EU in order to force the European Union to approve the construction of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline. Dutchman Franz Timmermans, who currently holds the post of Executive Deputy President of the European Commission, in spite of reality, claims that
“Europe does not need a Russian gas pipeline,” and the President of the same Poland, Andrzej Duda, calls for no less NATO to intervene in the pipeline situation.
I would like to clarify: is it because NATO’s brain has died? What then remains to appeal to? Conscience? Holy See and Catholic Church will not be called to intervene?
Probably, I will compliment the President of Lithuania, Mr. Nauseda, by including him among the grandees, but he did not stand aside. In his opinion, Nord Stream-2 “was a mistake from the very beginning.”
Which of the achievements of Lithuania over the past 20 years gives its President the right to call the largest energy project a “mistake”? Democracy, when you can tell everyone everything? It just doesn’t work, because the project involves private companies that, without the dictates of the presidents of other countries, will figure out whether this is a mistake or not.
The concert is enhanced by media accompaniment. The seemingly respectable “Frankfurter Allgemeine” (FAZ) also hit the other day in a near-political conspiracy theories. The protocols of Gazprom’s wise men, entitled “Why Putin is giving up big money,” in FAZ evoke nothing but an uncomfortable feeling of regret.
Bloomberg saw in the absolutely economic project of Gazprom a kind of mystical “desire of the Kremlin to rewrite the rules of the game,” and the British The Telegraph decided not to waste time on trifles. By the way, about the rules. The rules can just be rewritten, these are laws cannot. On the issue of the West abandoning international law in favor of “rules”.
“Europe is already in the power of Putin. Russia has cut off gas supplies to Ukraine several times. Now the rest of Europe is also in the hands of Putin”, writes the English edition.
Well, thanks, The Telegraph. Let’s celebrate.
All of this is an amazing and, let’s face it, somewhat awkward expression of what is generally called non-market elements of competition. They not only harm the economy, they are also dubious from a moral and ethical point of view. Honest business people don’t behave like that. Nord Stream-2 is the guarantor of Europe’s energy security, a factor of infrastructure stability. It is good that, despite the rather strong pressure from outside, Germany seems to understand this. As for the loud statements of Polish politicians and British tabloids.
What can I say. The law is not written to them.
Maria Zakharova