The goal of the Friday meeting of the European Union’s energy ministers is to examine emergency measures put forth by the commission of the union to halt the spike in gas and electricity prices brought on by the conflict in Ukraine. The United States, indicating political objectives beyond the specific objective of preventing Russian gas from reaching Europe.
From the Russian coast at St. Petersburg, Nord Stream 1 and 2 extend 1200 kilometres under the Baltic Sea in two parallel lines of four pipelines.
Every year, one cubic metre of gas Since Russia shut down Nord Stream in late August under the pretext that it required maintenance, the gas pipeline has not been pumping gas to Europe.
What led to the crisis’ onset?
Following bombings that they described as purposeful, Sweden and Denmark last week detected 4 gas leaks from the two lines and started an investigation.
The owner of the pipeline, Russia, was directly blamed by the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, but the latter was shocked by that accusation and confirmed that the area of the bombing was under American intelligence’s control, raising the possibility that Washington was involved. Washington, in turn, denounced this proposal and the bombing, which brought to mind a previous statement by US President Joe Biden, who said, At the beginning of last February, if Russia went afoot, it would be
What do professionals have to say?
According to a press source authorised by the European Union and NATO, investigations into what actually occurred are being conducted in Sweden and Denmark with the assistance of NATO and EU experts.
Washington flatly denied that the United States was behind these attacks, but the investigation teams have so far been able to confirm that there are two explosive devices attached to the Nord Stream line and that there have been verbal conflicts between the European institution and Russia and Ukraine on different sides of the issue.
Despite the pipeline’s ability to pump gas no longer, the source explained, the environmental impact of this leak in the Danish and Swedish territorial seas exceeds the expansion of two million cars due to pollution, which is a catastrophe that Sweden and Denmark have not yet acknowledged. Nasser Zuhair, the bombings of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 will worsen the European energy crisis and, in the long run, jeopardise the energy security of the European Union.
Speaking from Paris, Zuhair said that despite the accusations being traded between Russia and Western powers, including the United States, the Russian narrative seems more logical, according to which there is a party attempting to undermine the system for supplying gas to Europe. Russia does not need to blow up these lines in order to halt gas supplies to Europe; this suspension began on August 31.
Remove the Russian pressure paper.
The purpose of shutting down this pipeline, he continued, is to eliminate a leverage point for Russia to exert pressure on Europe and force the Europeans to concede to its requests for a reduction in sanctions in exchange for the restart of gas shipments, particularly as winter approaches.
According to Zuhair, the Nord Stream bombing will undoubtedly exacerbate the commotion surrounding energy in Europe, and more importantly, the beginning of targeting gas pipelines portends a serious threat to the continent’s energy security because there are also pipelines that run from Russia to Europe through Ukraine and are easily targettable. As a result, Norway put its army on alert around its power plants out of concern for acts of sabotage.
Regarding the belief that the United States will destroy Nord Stream to supply American gas to Europe in place of Russian gas, Zuhair stated that while investigations and condemnation of the United States cannot be anticipated, the truth is that it cannot make up for the lack of American gas in Europe by providing more than 15 billion cubic metres of gas, while the European Union imports 150 billion cubic metres of gas, which is a significant difference.
Are the bombings of the Nord Stream line political or economic?
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