WHO SABOTAGED THE RUSSIAN GAS LINES?

 SABOTAGE OF NORDSTREAM I AND II

The propaganda mills here at home on both the left and right are pushing the illogical idea that Russia, the world’s present-day “bete noire” was stupid enough and self destructive enough to blow up one of its own, most useful assets.  Don’t believe it.  

Having control over NordStream gave the Russians leverage. They could withhold or release desperately needed gas to those nations which moderated their support for Ukraine.  With NordStream they could divide and conquer their opponents.  By sabotaging both gas pipes the saboteurs made sure that that would not happen.  

But this is not a win for the “good guys”.  This descent into terrorism and sabotage is a huge escalation of the Ukraine conflict, solves nothing, and only creates a greater likelihood for further unpredictable escalation.  

To answer the question, Who did it? One must examine who benefits?  That question requires a look back at long standing US strategy.  Since the end of the first Cold War, US strategy has been to contain Russia.  President Ronald Reagan was successful in his efforts to undermine the USSR and help cause its demise.  The nation that survived that political and economic catastrophe was modern day Russia, a country only a shadow of the former USSR.  But over the two decades of Putin’s control, Russia has made some headway back to become at least a “local” power.   

The US, as the world’s only surviving global hegemon, and as of today, the world’s most powerful economic and military force the world has ever known, has had a long standing strategy to do everything in its power to hold on to that  position of power and viciously attack any entity that might alter that situation.

That is why Russia has been and remains our particular “bete noire”.  We see it as a potential threat to our global power.   How and why is Nordstream such a threat to us?   Let’s consider why the US was so vociferously against the first NordStream I pipeline. 

NordStream was an economic tie between two likely partners and close neighbors : Germany and Russia. Germany the world’s top industrial nation and Russia a nation rich in raw materials, mineral wealth and energy.  The combination was an economic threat.  The US is adamantly opposed to Nordstream  because US strategy has been and continues to be to keep the EU (and UK) economically and militarily dependent upon the USA and prevent it from making any economic or other alliances that would alter those circumstances.  The EU and UK are “our” colonies now.  Any alterations to that situation threatens US hedgemony.  

Imagine what would happen were the EU—the world’s most wealthy, technologically advanced and socially coherent entity—to develop economic or militarily  ties with Russia— world’ largest nation, with 11% of the globe in area and huge undeveloped resources of raw materials, forests, rare minerals, abundant water, and untold energy reserves. That combined political entity would become the world’s most populous, wealthy, energy rich, and resource rich polity in the world.  An economically united European Continent From Portugal to Russia would make economic midgets out of both the USA and China.  This is the USA nightmare. For the USA that now impossible dream would be an unmitigated political and economic disaster. 

Now back to who sabotaged Nordstream?  Who would profit?   Only the USA and its allies—-particularly Ukraine.  The destruction of Nordstream fits neatly into USA strategy and that of its east-European ally Ukraine.  

Ukraine is the key to the USA policy of keeping Russia weak and unstable. But for Europe and the world as a whole is it desireable to have Russia as an economic disaster nation on Europe’s eastern front, a nuclear armed outcast as a neighbor? And is Ukraine worth fighting a “no one wins” nuclear war over whether it remains a buffer state or a NATO member? 

 Pressing Russia into a corner from which it can not escape is very dangerous.  We may pay very heavily indeed for our penchant for world domination.  The reality of the present conflict in Ukraine has generated huge economic and political waves, but it is becoming even more dangerous and threatening, the outcome may well be: WWIII and a nuclear exchange.