A Ukraine Miscellany XII: Thank You USA (I)

One feels as if the propaganda has reached a new level, and with it the stakes and danger have become even greater. At the end of September a series of explosions heavily damaged the Nordstream pipelines which bring natural gas across the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. The two Nordstream 1 lines were rendered inoperable and apparently despite the explosions one of the two Nordstream 2 lines remains viable. In other words, three of the four pipelines have sustained serious damage.

Western media has been quick to blame Russia for this and Nordic nations are using this incident as an excuse to further militarize and ramp up their defensive posture – suggesting that Russia is preparing to attack other elements of their energy infrastructure such as offshore oil platforms. 

But little of this makes any sense and there's no small degree of theatre in connection with these events. The two Nordstream lines were already offline – the EU had effectively shut them down, refusing to utilise Russian gas in light of the Ukraine invasion. Nordstream 2 has never been operational. It was completed but has never actually delivered any gas.

For its part Russia would love to see the pipelines in operation as selling gas and oil are essential parts of its economy and Europe represents a substantial market to say the least. Gazprom, the Russian energy company owns a significant portion of the pipelines. Sabotaging them makes absolutely no sense. If Russia wants to 'punish' Europe by cutting off gas it can simply shut the lines off back in Russia. Why would they blow them up? Even the media can't really answer this and attempts to paint it as some kind of deranged vindictiveness on the part of Moscow.

On the other hand it is the United States that has repeatedly attempted to block these projects – Nordstream 2 was a special object of Washington's ire. This reached a fever pitch just a couple of years ago and at one point the United States threatened sanctions on German lawmakers and businesses associated with the project. The US has repeatedly pushed for Europe to buy American Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) which is even now being shipped across the Atlantic. And while some infrastructure exists, as you read this, new terminals and floating storage regasification units (FSRU) are being constructed for the offloading of American LNG. Some are due to be completed by the end of 2022. It's a huge investment and there's big money at stake for both European investors and the United States.

Biden and others such as the notorious Victoria Nuland (a key actor in the anti-Russia campaign and the 2014 coup in Ukraine) have repeatedly threatened that Nordstream 2 would not be allowed to become operable. In response to the sabotaged lines, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke in terms of the 'tremendous opportunity' this provides.

If this was a criminal investigation and the police were looking for motive – the prime suspect would have to be the United States.

And yet, the media has aggressively pushed a line that says any such suggestion is wild conspiracy theory. It must be Russia. Russia is responsible for everything. No doubt the Russians also blew up their own bridge to Crimea. I'm surprised the media isn't pushing that narrative but even that would be venturing too far into the realm of incredulity.

And yet despite the claims that Russia was the saboteur, Polish MEP Radek Sikorski had little doubt regarding who was responsible for the Nordstream attacks, as he immediately sent out a tweet – Thank You USA.

Sikorski is a longtime Russia-hawk and is married to Anne Applebaum who has been one of the key media-academia figures over the past decade relentlessly pushing for conflict with Russia and specifically attacking Vladimir Putin. These are connected people that are plugged into the larger campaign and as such Sikorski's tweet (now taken down) garnered considerable interest. It's hard to imagine he hasn't received some flak for it – or perhaps not. The denial campaign has overwhelmed any intelligent analysis and I'm sure it's an open secret – and his confirmation sends an unofficial but crystal clear message to Moscow.

In my opinion, the European leadership knows who is responsible for the sabotage and yet it wouldn't be the first time that there's an effective gag order. It cannot be spoken of. My guess is that leaders like Macron and Scholz are probably furious but there's nothing they can do.

What's fascinating to me – and this is the stuff of thriller movies – is that there's a chance one of the devices did not explode as one of the Nordstream 2 pipelines remains viable. We don't know what delivery system was used. It would seem that either a drone-type submarine was employed or perhaps a larger submarine of the type that's used to tap or sabotage communications cables. If explosives were planted and one failed to detonate, that means that there's critical evidence sitting under the waves that if retrieved would likely reveal just who was responsible. Is there a race to retrieve it? Who can say? But I'm sure the questions are being asked.

It's also possible it exploded but due to poor placement it failed to breach the pipeline.

And finally as a few others have pointed out – there's something fishy in the Western coverage. This was an environmental disaster as the pipes were charged with natural gas. It wasn't flowing, but the lines were full and given their length and size the quantity was considerable. One would think the media would have been screaming about the environmental damage caused by this huge methane emission and using it as part of their campaign to impugn Vladimir Putin. And yet there's been very little noise about this. Why?

When Saddam Hussein dumped oil in the Persian Gulf and lit the wells of Kuwait on fire in 1991 the media made a great deal of 'hay' about it and used the opportunity to further slander the character of the Iraqi leader. Why is Putin off the hook for this aspect of the explosions?

Some have suggested that it may come out in the future that it was not Russia who did this. And if it turns out that Washington or one of its NATO allies was behind the sabotage, the environmental angle will certainly be downplayed. This also leads me to wonder if this isn't an orchestrated media campaign demonstrating once again the utter lack of integrity within mainstream journalism.

Once again, the Nordstream incident reveals that energy plays a large part in this conflict. The war in Ukraine is not just or merely about energy but this scramble for resources and the control of them overshadows virtually every conflict in the world right now. This needs to be understood. It should generate some reflection on the part of Christians.

On the one hand there are indicators which suggest a push to wind down the Ukraine War – points touched on in the previous piece. Such a settlement would open up the possibilities of the gas flowing again – as Europe desperately wants it with winter on the near horizon. Access to the gas would have been a rather attractive angle to the peace negotiations for Europe.

Well, those hopes were just dashed. Though again, the failure to completely destroy Nordstream 2 means there a glimmer of hope for Europe in terms of Russian gas. Whoever was tasked with destroying those lines did not fully succeed and I'm sure that somewhere there are some people who are less than pleased about it. It's a case of mission not quite accomplished.

But on the other hand, the war seems to be escalating. Zelenskiy has shut down any discussion of peace talks. Even suggestions of it (such as the mundane plan floated by Elon Musk) are attacked with vitriol. Zelenskiy is now calling for preemptive nuclear strikes on Russia and one doesn't know what to think of the reports of Russian nuclear forces being on the move. Lies rule the day. NATO is purchasing anti-radiation kits and the like but is this in light of a real threat or is this merely a precursor to moves being planned by NATO – strikes that will likely elicit a response from Moscow? Or is it all just hype?

It seems that whether Putin is moving or not, the West is laying the groundwork for a significant move. The destruction of the Crimea Bridge also signals this as it represents a major escalation.

Zelenskiy has reached his most deranged point yet – but the media (and especially the BBC) has seemingly launched a new campaign to bolster him.

It could be argued the Nordstream sabotage means that US energy interests are secure and thus the war can wind down. And yet, since the one pipeline remains viable – the war needs to continue at least when considered from that angle. And yet given all that's happening at present, it's hard to imagine it continuing without serious escalation.

The situation is very dangerous and now we have praetorian-Deep State actors like the bloodthirsty John Bolton openly calling for regime change in Russia. It's been in the wind for some time but now it's being spoken of quite openly. Bolton doesn't hold any office at present but he's plugged in to very influential networks – and part of the larger Neo-Con/PNAC cabal that now transcends both political parties.  

The tensions are heightened by the fact that growing numbers of nations are dissenting from the US plan – an indication that many (despite the propaganda barrage and attempts at coercion) see what is happening and don't like it one bit. They are also unwilling to place all their bets on Washington as they see an empire cracking and on the verge of implosion. Everyone is holding their breath waiting to see if the US will make it through the mid-terms next month – let alone the presidential election of 2024.

Not only are growing numbers refusing to be party to the sanctions, we now see OPEC rejecting US calls to increase oil production – and just as prices are starting to rise again. Continued inflation, and rising gas prices, combined with supply shortages and grim projections has the retail sector rather concerned regarding the upcoming holiday season – which is the sine qua non of the US economy. A failed holiday season for the retail sector will send a shockwave across the US economy. Combine this with the polarized political climate and things could get really interesting as 2022 winds down.

Continue Reading Part 2