Quite possible, both Russia, to put pressure on the West, and the US, to be able to sell their gas at prohibitive prices, have enough reasons for this sabotage.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Russia invested billions into infrastructure, and lost a lot gas that was pumping through it. All theyhasd to do was turn off the tap. The pipelines were also a big bargaining chip for Russia.

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The lost of gas isn't a problem for Rusia, but a big problem for the EU. In any case, I do not dare to affirm the authorship of this, if it was Russia, as a response to pressure and boycotts from the EU or the US to alleviate their economic problem with money from the Europeans, capable of this sabotage are both. Pointing the culprits in this economic war between Russia and the US is risky until you have reliable evidence, which is not easy either with these "objective and independent" information media that we have. The first death in a war is always the truth.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago (16 children)

Thing is that Russia already demonstrated they're perfectly capable and willing to simply turn off the tap at the source. There is no pressure from US or EU that can force Russia to send gas to Europe. This why it's a bargaining chip for Russia, they are the ones who get leverage from the pipelines.

So, while both Russia and US have the capability, it's pretty clear US has a much clearer benefit from this. With the pipelines out of the way, Russia can't use them to pressure Europe to back away from the war. Meanwhile, US LNG companies get a big market.

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I understand perfectly, but precisely cutting off gas to Europe allows Russia to put pressure on it, since it forces Europe to pay these horrendous prices to the US and they cannot get money to support Ukraine. It's an easy game for Russia to send a submarine to put a couple of torpedoes into the pipelines, since they have it patrolling the Baltic and North Sea anyway. Both Russia and the US have plenty of reasons to cut off the tap to the EU, albeit for different reasons. In Spain and Portugal we are luckier as we do not depend on Russian gas, because we have a good infrastructure of our own renewable energy and because we receive gas from Algeria, but the rest of Europe expects a long winter.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What does Russia gain from destroying their own infrastructure?

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They don't have destroyed the own infrastructure, the destroyed the infastructure that carried gas to the EU. The gas bill of Russian consumers is less than $1.50 per month

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 years ago

The pipelines were built by Russia at the behest of Germany though, and it cost Russia billions to do that. Destroying this infrastructure to cut themselves off from being able to sell gas to Europe seems far fetched.

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[–] oriond@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

Was going to comment this same thing, but you already did it