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Comment by libertine | Hacker News Reader

They literally destroyed their economy and wiped out decades of diplomacy and trust... and you can't believe they blew up a bit of a pipe to pressure the market and Germany?

I don't think you're seeing things in perspective and the scale of the events.

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Pressure the market in what way that isn't accomplished by just turning the pipeline off without blowing it up?

And pressure Germany into what exactly? Think this one through. How does removing the possibility of re-opening the pipeline pressure Germany into anything from the point of view of the Russians?

What Russia would want to pressure Germany into is "stop your sanctions and we will sell you gas". A possibility removed by blowing up the pipeline.

The "Russia blew up the pipeline" idea makes absolutely no sense. And if there was any evidence to support it, you know that the whole of Western media would be shouting it from every rooftop.

But instead we have silence, and concerns over "national security"

Ok so I'll give you the context you seem to have forgotten: when the pipe was blown up Europe was in the market to acquire LNG... and they needed A LOT of gas.

When Russia closed the pipe, it rippled through the market, and made EU pay more for the LNG.

When they blew the pipe GAS PRICES SPIKED 30%: https://www.cityam.com/gas-prices-spike-30-per-cent-amid-nor...

If that's not pressuring the market, I don't know what it is. On top of the increased pressure, they managed to make EU pay even more - on a WAR THAT RUSSIA NEEDS TO END ASAP.

> But instead we have silence, and concerns over "national security"

What good would it be to let everyone know Russia did it? Get people questioning: if this is an act of war? Why are we allowing Russia to attack our infrastructure? What will they attack next?

No one wants to go to war with Russia.

Plus, Russia will deny this anyway, like they denied the attack on the flight MH17, even after evidence proved it was done by Russia - we already knew it was them, but only now there was a verdict - since 2014 this has been investigated.

> The "Russia blew up the pipeline" idea makes absolutely no sense. And if there was any evidence to support it, you know that the whole of Western media would be shouting it from every rooftop. But instead we have silence, and concerns over "national security"

Indeed. With every day that goes by without NATO publicly publishing proof of Russia being the culprit, Russian responsibility seems less likely. If Russia did it, going public with that proof would be great for America/NATO and harmful to Russia.

>Indeed. With every day that goes by without NATO publicly publishing proof of Russia being the culprit, Russian responsibility seems less likely. If Russia did it, going public with that proof would be great for America/NATO and harmful to Russia.

Harmful to Russia?

Do you realize they're invading a country and stealing land? There's no more harm for Russia, they did it to themselves.

The countries that align with Russia have already done, the neutral ones don't care.

Destroyed their economy? The ruble is doing just fine. And it was the West that TRIED to destroy their economy. Tell me how pressuring the market and Germany is somehow a plausible theory?? If the pipeline is gone there is nothing more to negotiate about, which is exactly why the US blew it up (coincidentally while Russia and Germany were negotiating). https://fair.org/home/us-medias-intellectual-no-fly-zone-on-...

Ruble is a controlled forex currency. You virtually can't sell rubles and exchange them to EUR or USD at the moment. Russian government imposed very strict regulation into buying foreign currencies and banks imposed heavy taxation (1% per month) for holding foreign currencies, forcing people into exchanging USD into RUB. Volume is down substantially as well.

It was a smart thing to do by Russia - it keeps ruble look strong. We'll see how long they can keep it up. Maybe in future we'll even read about it in books how to avoid currency depreciation.

This must be a joke: the ruble is doing fine.

Biden LITERALLY was quoted saying that we will take out the pipeline, when further asked about it, he said "I promise you, we will be able to do it".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVbEoZXhCrM

You probably haven't seen this because the mainstream never shows it when talking about the pipeline sabotage.

Since the invasion he has made multiple diplomatically problematic misstatements that the state department had to walk back. Banking on American presidents’ “tough talk” will bankrupt you quickly. Given his cognitive state we can’t know, but why would he disclose this if it were actually on the todo list? It just doesn’t work that way.

But really, the question isn’t if we could or would, but if we did. Those are majorly different questions.

You're taking it literally.

There are many ways to not allow the usage of the pipeline - politics, sanctions, etc.

But you had to nail it down to pipe blowing.

Funny thing though, he was talking about NS2 which was left partly intact.

Isn’t it amazing how you get downvoted for bringing up obvious facts? The other striking thing about Biden’s declaration that the US would end Nordstream is that the German head of state was standing right next to him when he said it. Tells you everything you need to know about the relationship and sadly, the subservience of the German government.

It's just laughable at this point. You bring up a literal quote and link to the video, they say it was a misstatement. The mental gymnastics is impressive.

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