Pick your mix of blind stupidity and outright corruption, but I lean heavily towards the latter.
To wit, that multinational energy deals of that magnitude require political investment and certainty to be tenable. Schroder's involvement was a tacit acknowledgement of this reality, and gesture of political good faith.
Or put another way, neither Russia nor Germany would have contemplated the project without serious indications of political support.
It was Europe which decided not to by cheap Russian gas anymore and to ground their own economy. Instead Europa has to buy gas now on the spot market for about ten times the price. So Russia is more than happy by adhering to the contract and watching Europe to inflicting the damage themselves.
If the West would have decided to buy their NLG somewhere else 5 years ago, Russia would have invaded the Ukraine even with less considerations.
I mean, i don't quite blame them, they started a war and the West is sending in military kit to kill their soldiers in Ukraine, but Russia is certainly not holding it's side of the contracts here.
But it is indeed self inflicted as everyone warned Germany that this is how it will end. But hey gas was cheap for a while.
The technical problems are real. A western company (German even) received a compressor turbine, repaired it and then sat on it due to sanctions. Germany got the sanctions voided for that equipment and it was shipped it back to Russia. If the problems weren't real we can assume it would have been discovered at that point. Also remember that the whole point of imposing sanctions on Russia is to degrade their factories and ability to repair complex equipment! Industrial disruption due to inability to access foreign parts and repair services is exactly what the sanctions were meant to create and yet when it happens, media and government claim there can be no possible wear and tear on huge pieces of rapidly spinning equipment, so it must all be 4D chess.
Russia did not "demand unilateral changes to gas contracts". It's the other way around. Europe sanctioned Russia and then stole all their EUR foreign reserves, an unprecedented and highly hostile move. Because Russia could no longer transact in EUR they said, OK, you'll have to pay us for gas in rubles. Given this they could theoretically have said you're violating your contracts which say you'll pay us in EUR, so we won't supply any gas until you un-sanction us, but they didn't.
So, every claim you're making here is wrong and this can be checked against documented facts and sources that aren't connected to Russia.
This is a core part of the problem with what's happening. The media lies and simply makes things up. People believe it anyway. Did Russiagate teach us nothing? What Russia is doing is bad but telling ourselves a bunch of nonsensical fairy tales will only make the situation worse.
Russian funds were indeed frozen, but with the exception of banks processing gas payments so that can go ahead. Russia went further than asset freezes, and nationalised swathes of Western property in Russia, like leased aeroplanos for example. By EU countries laws, frozen Russian assets are to be returned at some point and cannot eg be used by other parties in the meantime. Whereas Russia declared a lot if Western assets their own property now.
I agree it's awkward, the West couldn't expect Russia to not respond to the sanctions. So in the narrow context of gas exports it's not simply "bad Russia good West", but Russia is clearly an active belligerent in this economic conflict.
This is not correct. You have to understand that "money" at commercial banks is not money, but only a debt of that commercial bank with the account holder. Gas and other commodities are always paid in real money, which exists only in to flavors: Paper money and accounts directly at the respective central banks. This means you can have your real USD only on accounts at the FED and real Euros only at ECB etc. The West froze Russian accounts on EZB (the contracts are nominated to be paid in EUR) and at the same time wanted to pay the gas only on these accounts, which for obvious reasons was rejected by Russia. Russia requested to have their accounts unfrozen or paid in Rubels.
There was some face saving detours introduced into the payment process, but in the end the West pays now in Rubels.
Another example of self inflicted pain was when the West made it impossible for Russia to make debt payments. It was not Russia who suffered (they saved their payments), but the western creditors who lost their money.
I know a few investors who held Gazprom and Lukoil stocks over many years. They were factually expropriated because the brokers are refusing to process dividend payments or even selling the stock back to Russia. Again, not Russia was hit but citizens in the West.
Apparently there were multiple turbines, and at least one of them is in the "Germany (and Canada) have waived sanctions on it, but Gazprom refuses to accept it back because of sanctions" stage.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/explainer-nord-stream-...
But tbh even since the 1970s, we know peak oil is coming. Nuclear fission and fusion plus full electrification of industry, transport and homes, and renewable energy investment should be absolutely critical. This is what taxes and governments are for!
Jumping on the US bandwagon so late is a mistake though, given the current situation it'd be best to stay neutral realistically (like Armenia, Georgia, etc.) and use the time to achieve the above. Ideology is nice, but realpolitik keeps the lights on.
Also, I learned something about Armenia today.
Germany 'Totally Controlled By Russia' (2018)
Had Heiko Maas gone home four years ago and advised Merkel to listen to Trump and start weaning the country off Russian gas (and, yes, buy US gas instead), Germany would not face this existential crisis today. Instead, he laughed at the US president on camera, and is now enjoying a quiet retirement in Saarland (and, no doubt has no worries about whether he will be able to get gas to heat his home this winter). *The German crisis is 100% self-inflicted*.
My "seriously" comment was a reaction to a post of what basically is a meme in a rather serious discussion.
As far the "German" crisis goes, isn't it rather a European, and one could make the case, global energy crisis? Compounded by a global economy heading for a recession (the US are already in one based on two quarters with negative GDP growth) caused by too much cheap money and staggering inflation due to supply short falls caused by Covid?
But yeah, if Germany would have bought US gas instead of Russian one all would be good... By the way, Nord Stream 2 never went live over this. Before any of the current mess happened. You want to blame someone, blame Putin to do something the USSR was too smart to do during the cold war.
That you've seen the video elsewhere neither makes it a "meme", nor allows you to dismiss it as merely such. (I'm just amazed that you didn't pull the "Even a broken clock is right twice a day"/"Trump said everything about anything so was bound to get something right"/"Trump also said uncomplimentary things about NATO so should have been arrested as a traitor" canards. And yes, I've seen all three responses, almost word for word, when I in the past pointed to the Trump video.)
>As far the "German" crisis goes, isn't it rather a European, and one could make the case, global energy crisis?
This is a global crisis in large part because of Germany. Germany is the large European economy most dependent on Russian energy. Even setting aside how the German economy drives the bulk of Europe's economy, thanks to the European energy market increased prices in Germany increases prices on the rest of the continent. The UK is mostly self-sufficient in terms of gas, but prices there have risen too because producers understandably prefer selling to those on the continent willing to pay much more.
The US is also self-sufficient, but prices here have risen (not as much, but some) for similar reasons. The non-developed world is going to be hit the hardest.