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Here is why I don't buy that the US did it. Any of these theories would require that Nordstream 2 also be destroyed. It remains. Germany has had all this time

Here is why I don't buy that the US did it. Any of these theories would require that Nordstream 2 also be destroyed. It remains. Germany has had all this time the option to turn it back on. They have declined. They refused to certify it well before the pipeline was destroyed. There was no dragging them to that position. I am not really sure why Europeans get consistently treated as poodles being led around with treats or being beaten with sticks in geopolitical discussions.

berdario 3y ago
(besides the fact that pipe A of NS2 has also been damaged) Why would the existence of a new, still unused but surviving pipeline be a reason to dismiss US involvement in the sabotage? Germany is already hostile to Russia (there are people like Gerhard Schröder, but they are not part of the current political establishment), so they are going to be hesitant to make changes that would be seen as being "soft vs Russia". It's easier to keep the status quo than to make changes that would be politically fraught (like removing sanctions). Sabotaging NS1 was almost certainly not done with the complicity of Germany, but despite the obvious economic damage it dealt, it was convenient for people who wanted to disentangle the economic relations that Germany had with Russia: this way there wouldn't be any contract that would have to be breached. Moreover, sabotaging this is a very credible threat that... If Germany would want to actually approve use of NS2, they could risk and see the same thing happen again.