Europe has offered to fix the alleged "problems" multiple times, bringing their own spare parts and rolling out the red carpet on the off chance that missing pa

Europe has offered to fix the alleged "problems" multiple times, bringing their own spare parts and rolling out the red carpet on the off chance that missing parts & personnel due to sanctions are in fact the culprit. But to no-one's big surprise, Russia has declined. So the conclusion is obvious. It would of course be interesting to do a 40 page research essay in the style of WaitButWhy every time Russia makes a statement that fails to pass the smell test -- reeeeeeally document in detail why the statement is lower probability than a lie. The problem is, Russian authorities routinely lie, so often that following this strategy would lead to spending all one's time authoring (and then communicating) these explanations. Such a course of action is nothing but playing right along with the intentions of the propaganda. If Russia one day wakes up and makes a true but surprising statement and no one believes them, they will only have themselves to thank for it. That German energy politics since March 11 2011 has been a shitshow of incompetence is something we can both agree on, but Russia's present-day capitalization on this mistake is anything but.