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Vladimir Putin says the world’s energy infrastructure is at risk
- Normille 4y ago
- andy_ppp 4y agoAre you saying Putin hasn’t used threats to cut gas supplies to Europe to attempt to deter the West from helping Ukraine?
- teekert 4y agohttps://nypost.com/2022/02/07/biden-vows-us-will-end-nord-stream-2-gas-pipeline-if-ukraine-invaded/ https://nypost.com/2022/02/07/biden-vows-us-will-end-nord-st...
- Normille 4y ago>Are you saying Putin hasn’t used threats to cut gas supplies to Europe to attempt to deter the West from helping Ukraine? If that was addressed to me: I'm pointing out [for the nth time] that, after Russia invaded Ukraine, the EU and UK announced their intentions to completely stop buying Russian gas & oil. This has now been spun into the narrative that [as I quoted above, from the Economist article] "It [Russia] has used cuts in gas supplies, or the threat of them, to try to blackmail Europe since the early days of its invasion of Ukraine..." This is the exact opposite of the truth. Russia continued to supply oil & gas and pledged to keep on doing so, right from day 1 of the invasion of Ukraine. It was the EU & UK which decided to weaponise energy supplies and they are now suffering the consequences. Hence the 'Ministry of Truth' version of events that we're seeing now, repeated over and over again til it becomes fact. Amusing also that pointing this out gets your post downvoted and flagged to oblivion. Kind of reinforces my point, no?
- agumonkey 4y agoI'm quite curious about what Biden meant not long ago about "getting rid of Nordstream 2" publicly. Its such a strange risky speech.
- H8crilA 4y agoSanctions. Not sure on what exactly, but could be for example on the compressor turbines. North America (US and Canada) is a powerhouse in hydrocarbon technology. A lot of the fields in Russia are running Schlumberger technology. We'll see how that goes forward in the sanctions world, will probably end up nationalized/stolen like the various Boeings and Airbuses from European leasing companies.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- rafale 4y agoHe meant terminating the deal obviously. It's the idea that the president pre announces sabotage operations that's ridiculous.
- SanjayMehta 4y ago
- kdmsk 4y agoTerminating a deal he wasn’t a part of?
- kdmsk 4y ago
- midoridensha 4y agoYes, because the Russian narrative makes so much sense...
- andy_ppp 4y agoSurely Russia will be declaring war on the West if this happens. Certainly a load of Russian naval assets will be sunk if they start cutting Internet cables and attacking Norway’s gas infrastructure is an attack on NATO and would elicit an equivalent response against Russian gas infrastructure. It can’t be done without WW3. Or is Putin assuming he can behave like a gangster and eventually we’ll back down? I’m not sure this is possible given that any sign of weakness leads to more threats.
- H8crilA 4y agoThey (most likely they) already cut Norway cables to Svalbard last year. Also, see the history of this vessel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_research_vessel_Yantar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_research_vessel_Yantar
- andy_ppp 4y agoThe threat is there, sure, but they have to understand that escalation like this will and has to lead to escalation from the West, otherwise we are showing Russia can do what it likes without costs. Or we can just appease them and watch them try to destroy our way of life anyway.
- H8crilA 4y agoThey are already paying the price: hydrocarbons are mostly gone as a source of income; besides they cannot even spend that income due to sanctions. And yet they continue the "hybrid war". I'm on your side, but I'm also realistic.
- replygirl 4y agolast time i read, lower volume was offset by higher prices and russia stood to increase both their export earnings and their domestic stockpile
- 4y ago
- vegai_ 4y agoPerson who is actively working to put the world's energy infrastructure at risk says that world's energy infrastructure is at risk. Paraphrasing Jim Carrey in the movie Liar Liar: STOP THE WAR, ASSHOLE!
- H8crilA 4y agoWhy would he? The fact that you want something for a very good reason doesn't mean it will happen. People often have a hard time accepting that a problem may not have a solution. The nuclear threats from this f**** regime are a good example: simply yielding to them doesn't actually decrease the risk of a nuclear exchange, it merely postpones it.
- sgt 4y agoShetland also got their Internet cable cut. The entire population offline for a few days. Hopefully due to accident and not sabotage.
- whatwhatwhat_ 4y ago
- rob74 4y agohttps://archive.ph/qVWco https://archive.ph/qVWco
- BurnGpuBurn 4y ago
- club_tropical 4y agoSuzerains gonna suzerain.
- glogla 4y agoSays the person promoting Ivermectin as COVID cure in their post history. What is the odds someone would believe in two cases of Russian misinformation, I wonder.
- rat9988 4y agoTo be honest, in the case of the explosions, this is what most of the world believes. It doesn't make sense that russia sabotages its own infrastructure.
- Epa095 4y agoIt shows that he is willing to cross (another) border we didn't think he would cross. The motivation is to cause fear, uncertainty, and doubt in western countries, lowering support for Ukraine. Here in Norway we are definitely more worried than we were before, so that part of it is working. Will it help him split the west? Will more and more people speak out against supporting Ukraine? Fear can be a powerful motivator. Time will tell.
- Semaphor 4y agoWhile I wouldn’t say "most of the world", it’s certainly not "few doubt that the Kremlin did it" either.
- rat9988 4y agoMaybe "most of the world" is a view colored by my own bubble. I haven't made any statistics I'll admit.
- 4y ago
- lkrubner 4y agoThis is another example of "Navernoye, seno vkusno pakhlo" -- a flippant remark about danger, the final sentence of the autobiography/memoir that Putin published in 2000, to introduce himself to Russia, and the world. He was trying to establish a reputation as a man who could be wild and unpredictable, therefore you would never want to play a game of chicken with him, because you could not be sure how far he would take it. This is from the well-regarded Fiona Hill / Clark Gifford book: ---------- In fact, the Putin book turns out to be the only source for this story, something that ought to have set off alarm bells. Ot pervogo litsa was intended to be a campaign biography, or “semi–autobiography.” The publication of the book was orchestrated by Putin’s staff in the spring of 2000 based on a series of one–on–one interviews with a carefully selected troika of Russian journalists. Putin’s team’s task was to stage–manage the initial presentation, to all of Russia, of this relatively unknown person who was now standing for election as president of the country. It was crafted as a set of conversations with Putin himself, his wife, and other people close to him in his childhood and early life. Every vignette, every new fact presented in the book was chosen for a specific political purpose. The journalists who interviewed Putin also used some of the material for articles in their own newspapers and other publications. What, then, could Putin’s purpose have been in revealing such a character flaw? The answer becomes evident when one reflects on the curious ending of the book. Ot pervogo litsa ends with the interviewers noting that Putin seems, after all the episodes in his life that they have gone through, to be a predictable and rather boring person. Had he never done anything on a whim perhaps? Putin responded by recounting an incident when he risked his own life and that of his passenger, his martial arts coach, while driving on a road outside Leningrad (in fact when he was at university). He tried to grab a piece of hay through his open car window from a passing truck and very nearly lost control of the car. At the end of the harrowing ride, his white–faced (and presumably furious) coach turned to Putin and said, “You take risks.” Why did Putin do that? “I guess I thought the hay smelled good” (Navernoye, seno vkusno pakhlo), said Putin. This is the last line in the book. The reader clearly is meant to identify with Putin’s coach and ask: “Wait! What was that all about? Just who is this guy?” See more here: https://demodexio.substack.com/p/mr-putin-operative-in-the-kremlin https://demodexio.substack.com/p/mr-putin-operative-in-the-k...
- pydry 4y ago>Mr Putin’s warning was a study in chutzpah. Russia denies responsibility for the explosions. But few doubt that the Kremlin did it. They cant be serious. The Kremlin gains nothing from blowing up their own pipeline. The investment gave them potential leverage over the German energy market that is going to be screaming for more gas come winter. America and Poland are the most likely culprits.
- JoiDegn 4y agoThat is what I thought as well and I similarly discounted the likelihood that Russia did this but I have changed my opinion on this particularly because I don't think Germany is actually going to run into (a lot of) trouble this Winter and probably also not next winter. And if Russia agrees that this is likely to be the case and also that there is not likely going to be gas deliveries through North Stream in the coming years then destroying it could at least serve the purpose of increasing doubt and creating uncertainty especially if it could be pinned on other actors (i.e. the US). Here is why I think Germany will be relatively ok: German source on Zeit.de showing gas deliveries from other countries making up a big chunk of Russian deliveries and German gas reserves being almost full and gas demand being ~25% under the average demand in the past years (probably largely due to the price of course). https://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/energiemonitor-deutschland-gaspreis-spritpreis-energieversorgung https://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/energiemonitor-deutschland-ga... Additionally LNG terminals are due to come live in December (if there won't be delays).
- pydry 4y agoThe storage provides 2-3 months' worth of gas. It being full is not enough to ride out a rough winter without rationing. Meanwhile even with a new LNG container port they still have to pay through the nose for all that American LNG. Germany will probably survive without a rash of people freezing to death but economically it is going to suffer very, very badly.
- stavros 4y agoMaybe demand is lower because the price is ten times higher than 2020 levels.
- zelphirkalt 4y agoAh but he is a "clever" one, right? Talking about the world, but actually meaning "Russian World" in secret! Had me worried there for moment. But seriously, if anything is at risk, it is because he and people like him still exist.
- muchtest 4y agoOn Nordstream explosion "Russia denies responsibility for the explosions. But few doubt that the Kremlin did it." I can stop reading at this line to know that this isn't journalism, it's opinion at best and propaganda at worst. I expect better from HN. At this point if Moscow gets obliterated in a Nuclear Mushroom cloud, I expect the next mornings headlines to be "And here's how Russia benefits from this"
- pydry 4y agoYeah, this is the mirror image of RT.
- Ligma123 4y agoDid you really expect anything else from "the Economist"?
- chimen 4y agohttps://youtu.be/OS4O8rGRLf8?t=83 https://youtu.be/OS4O8rGRLf8?t=83
- dkjaudyeqooe 4y agoAnd that implies blowing it up?
- dkjaudyeqooe 4y agoYou denounce their pronouncement but what have you added to the discussion with your comment? The explosions benefit Russia because it gives them cover for a permanent stop to supplying Germany with gas, something that was already a given because Germany would never buy gas from Russia again due to their atrocities in the war. In the Russians' mind it gives them the "moral high ground" rather than humiliation and makes out the West to be the villain. This is typical Russian logic. On the other side there is no rational reason for the West to destroy the pipelines, outside of strained conspiracy theories that the US wanted to stop Germany from buying gas from Russia and buy it from the US, which was already happening. Nevermind that the risk/reward of such an action would be stupid for the US and that it has other, much safer ways to achieve the same result.
- rich_sasha 4y agoPutin can't win the war against Ukraine. For decades, he's struggling to make Russia into a place that's actually nice to live in - free from organised crime, with growth prospects, innovation, free media. So instead he'll level the gap against the West by burning it. Ah no he can't do that, he'll go around cutting cables and blowing up pipes.
- mjreacher 4y agoRelated: https://www.crn.com/news/security/zscaler-ceo-major-eu-internet-cable-cut-was-act-of-vandalism- https://www.crn.com/news/security/zscaler-ceo-major-eu-inter... Title: Zscaler CEO: ‘Major’ EU Internet Cable Cut Was ‘Act Of Vandalism’ Most incidents of cuts in internet cables usually have benign causes but given recent hostilities it's worth keeping an eye on whether these incidents start becoming far more common than they have been historically.
- tuatoru 4y agoGarbled mess of an article. The headline and the first paragraph is about fossil fuel infrastructure, but all the rest is about submarine communications cables. And it is incoherent.