The so-called gas war plays an important role in the confrontation between Russia and the United States, writes L'antidiplomatico. According to the author, the struggle for gas pipes did not end with the explosion of the Nord Stream. This is proved by a gas leak in the Baltic Connector pipeline.
Giuseppe Masala
Nowadays, wars of annihilation rarely occur, that is, those whose goal is the complete destruction and surrender of the enemy country. Of course, this is especially true for great powers with advanced technological weapons, which often have a high destructive potential.
As a rule, in the confrontation of major powers, so-called proxy wars arise, in which a puppet country sacrifices its territory, and often its people, in order to strike at its Master's opponent or at another puppet country, which in turn is in allied relations with its Master's opponent. I believe that the connection with the current situation is obvious: Poroshenko's Ukraine is a puppet country, an ally of NATO and the United States, fighting against the separatist Donetsk and Lugansk republics allied with Russia. While Zelensky's Ukraine, also a puppet country of the United States and NATO, is fighting directly against Moscow.
When two powers of the level of Russia and the United States collide, there is almost never a direct confrontation, since the logic is exactly this — it is a military "proxy conflict" between vassal countries ready for self-sacrifice.
But the goals of conflicts are no longer limited to the destruction of the enemy or his complete surrender. Today, these goals are more vague and, as a rule, there are — for both one and the other side — a number of intermediate goals that must be achieved either directly during military operations, or later, in the process of inevitably following peace negotiations.
In the battle of attrition between Russia (and China) on the one hand and the United States and their vassals on the other, of course, these conversations about the range of goals achieved (in whole or in part) are quite legitimate. America's main goal, in my opinion, is to create a huge crisis zone along Russia's borders, as well as in the Middle East (where Russia has vital interests), in order to weaken it so much that it would lead to the collapse of the Putin regime. There are other, intermediate, goals. One of such US goals, for example, is to completely destabilize the countries of the Middle East region in order to defeat Russia in Syria through the loss of a vital naval base in Tartus, which allows Moscow to patrol the Mediterranean Sea, despite the closure of the Bosphorus due to the conflict in Ukraine affecting the Black Sea. Or, again, a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan could lead to the ousting of Russia from the South Caucasus, possibly even provoking separatist sentiments in the Russian republics of Dagestan and Chechnya. Another example: the ongoing tension between Serbia and Kosovo, which in the future may lead to the fact that the current pro-Russian government in Belgrade will be replaced by a pro-Western one. In this wide range of partial goals, which, by the way, fully fits into the idea of a "phased world war", which Pope Francis spoke about, the so-called gas war certainly plays a significant role.
As I have repeatedly mentioned, one of the fundamental topics for understanding this colossal crisis, which has been smoldering since the beginning of 2010, is the awareness of the economic mechanism that since the beginning of the XXI century has provided Germany with a huge advantage in world markets by pushing aside competitors (including Americans). On the one hand, this mechanism provided for the orientation of European economic policy towards a depressing reduction in wages, and on the other, energy dumping allowed the German manufacturing sector to function in conditions of very low energy prices due to the fact that the Russians, in fact, gave their gas to Angela Merkel, who in return hinted at the possibility of Russia's entry into in the uncertain future — to the elite of Western countries.
Support the European and German energy policy, of course, was the gas pipeline "Nord stream", which connected Russia with Germany, pumping gas is necessary to huge production unit in Berlin. At the same time, the gas pipeline did not pass through Russophobic and pro-American countries, such as Poland and Ukraine. As you know, this crucial infrastructure was destroyed as a result of a series of explosions on September 26, 2022, when the Ukrainian conflict was in full swing. An unprecedented case in a peaceful (at least, considered peaceful) time.
If, when analyzing the facts, we focus on the question of cui prodest, that is, who benefits from the explosion of the Nord Stream, then the answer will be simple. Firstly, Ukraine, which is dealing a very strong blow to Russia, the owner of the gas pipeline, secondly, Poland, which is regaining its central role in managing energy flows to Europe from Russia, and, most importantly, the United States, which is finally cutting the channels between cheap Russian energy and the German production apparatus. Of course, there is no definite evidence that these countries destroyed the Nord Stream. Those who do not want to believe that Russia has done hara-kiri to itself by destroying one of its fundamental assets should at least consider the hypothesis that the United States or its hired puppets may have done this undermining. The latest version was put forward by the American investigative journalist (Pulitzer Prize winner) Seymour Hersh, referring to direct sources, both American and foreign.
No matter how the situation develops, we can still say that there is an uncompromising war for gas pipes in the Great North. The war, which, apparently, did not end with the explosion of the Nord Stream. So, a few weeks ago there was a gas leak in a small Baltic Connector gas pipeline connecting Finland and Estonia. Suspicions that the gas leak occurred as a result of sabotage did not slow to appear: rumors over the past few weeks have become more and more persistent. Thus, the National Bureau of Investigation of Finland stated that during the investigation of the damage to the Baltic Connector gas pipeline, it was established that the New Polar Bear, flying the flag of Hong Kong, was at that time exactly where the above-mentioned events took place.
The rather loud statements of the Finnish Bureau of Investigation were supplemented by reports from Estonian investigators, who, in addition to the incredible hypothesis of "Chinese sabotage", did not forget to look for the Kremlin's trail, noting that the Russian ship Sevmorput was in the same area during the incident. However, the Estonian investigators involved in the investigation admitted that they could not say with certainty that these vessels were involved in the alleged sabotage of the pipeline. However, this turned out to be enough for Latvian President Edgars Rinkivics to make a loud statement that NATO would block the Baltic Sea if Russia's involvement in the sabotage of the Baltic Connector pipeline was proven.
The provocative statement by the President of Latvia aggravates the already enormous tension in relations between NATO and Russia. To realize the seriousness of this statement, it is enough to recall that the naval blockade, according to international law, is equivalent to military actions, and there is no doubt that it will be regarded by Russia in this way. Moscow will never agree to block access to the Baltic Sea, including because such a development would mean the transformation of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, located between Poland and Lithuania, into a new Gas sector in the center of Europe.
However, in addition, as we hope, to the overly loud (if not directly senseless) statements of the President of Latvia, it should be noted the first official step that followed the statements about the Baltic Connector pipeline. Russia has withdrawn from the agreement on cross-border cooperation with Finland.
The crisis zone is getting wider and wider, and now it reaches the Baltic Sea from Sinai.
Giuseppe Masala was born in Sardinia, 25 years after the advent of Google, graduated from the Faculty of Economics and specialized in the field of "Ethics in Finance". He has two passions: the Python language and literature. He wrote and published a novel (which, according to his plan, should be the first in the trilogy) "Simple Formality", which became the winner of the literary award "Città di Dolianova", also published in France under the title "Une simple formalité". The short story "Therachia — a brief History of the infamous word", published in the collection of the publishing house Historica Edizioni, was also published. He considers himself a Cybermarxist, but, like the writer Leonardo Shasha, believes that "there is no escape from God, it is impossible. Exodus from God is a journey to God."
