Russian Tensions
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The pipeline was completed in September 2021. hundreds of pictures on the Internet that show the plants and pipelines already built. The USA is opposing the pipeline because they want to sell their gas to the European countries at a higher price
Yes, and Germany is obliging, by halting it.
Scholz know who is his boss!Nordstrean 2 is nicht kaputt. As PJS has just pointed out, it has already been built. It is inconceivable that it won’t be used and will simply be abandoned. So its opening has only been postponed.
And if NATO never backs down, it’ll stay postponed. Then what will the German capitalists who want it do about it?
As we now see, the sanctions are minimal and will have little effect other than inconvenience upon Russia’s banking.
International commerce is based upon SWIFT payments. If Russia is banned from it, Gazprom’s natural gas bill will not get paid and half EU’s supply would cease.
6 weeks of reserves
Any real effective sanctions are unsustainable in the long term as they would be just as damaging to the EU economy.
In the end, Ukraine’s ensuring sovereignty isn’t worth the cost to the EU.
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-faces-sanctions-nightmare-of-paying-for-putins-war/
(the FT and NYT are also carrying articles on the problems of sanctions but are behind paywalls)
Any attempt by the US to impose Cuban, Iran or Venezuela level embargoes will be strongly opposed.
Russia is a key global trader in vital products. Russia would simply sell to middlemen who would in turn re-sell the commodities at higher prices.
Global inflation and cost of living squeezes are already serious issues. There will be little enthusiasm in exacerbating them.
There is a big difference between stopping Russian oligarchs from buying luxury-cars and super-yachts and cutting off your nose to spite your face. Harrods and the high-end property market might face a drop in demand from the billionaire Russians but ordinary Europeans won’t be happy to pay higher prices for utilities.
But the working class here facing the squeeze will just blame Russia, not NATO. Russophobia will take any heat off the shoulders of Bozo for rising prices. Calls for war could intensify, as the average Brit blames foreigners for everything anyway.
The good news is that the possible energy crisis will hasten the dumping of fossil fuels and the speed the move to renewables.
A silver lining…
And perhaps nuclear power will also be questioned.
Even If Nuclear War Is Averted, Ukraine’s Reactors Could Be in Line of Fire
“No matter the genesis, the cause, or who started what, the reality remains that there are 15 operating nuclear reactors in Ukraine that, if conflict breaks out there, could be in peril,” said Gunter. “If the reactors find themselves amidst a conflict or war, they cannot simply be abandoned by the workforce. This makes the prospects of a war in Ukraine all the more alarming, and the imperative to avoid this all the more urgent.”
“The reactors present a daunting specter. If struck, the installations could effectively become radiological mines. And Russia itself would be a victim of the ensuing wind-borne radioactive debris,” Ramberg observed. “Were a reactor core to melt, explosive gases or belching radioactive debris would exit the containment structure. Once in the atmosphere, the effluents would settle over thousands of miles, dumping light to very toxic radioactive elements on urban and rural landscapes. And spent nuclear fuel could cause further devastation if storage pools were set afire.”
Well, you’ve put me in a profound depression with that.
ALB said there is no likelihood of a nuclear war.
Actually, the first part — “the facts” — of that CWO/ICT statement is really quite good. It’s what follows which isn’t as they repeat their mistaken analysis of why there are wars under capitalism;
“The bourgeoisie does not walk down the path towards war just because they feel like it, but rather because they find that, in addition to attacking the working class, it is the only path to alleviating their cyclical crisis of the tendency for the rate of profit to fall over time.”
I think they would be hard put to justify NATO’s attempt to incorporate Ukraine in to its sphere of influence and Russia’s determination to stop this and perhaps bring Ukraine back into its sphere as motivated by a desire to alleviate the falling rate of profit.
The atomic bomb would be the last resource to be used by the capitalists, they do not want to eliminate themselves completely, as well they do not want to eliminate their means of production completely.
In the USA many atomic plants are located in areas prompt to earthquakes that might also produce a big disaster without using atomic bombs
Paris and Berlin light up landmarks in Ukrainian colours
Germany and France’s capitals have shown solidarity with Kyiv tonight by each lighting up a historic monument in blue and yellow, the national colours of Ukraine.“We are showing our solidarity with the people of Ukraine, the many Berliners with Ukrainian roots but also with the many Russians who want peace in Russia and Ukraine,” Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey says.
The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin
ReutersCopyright: Reuters
The Brandenburg Gate was lit up, with Berlin’s mayor expressing unity with Ukrainians and Russians who want peaceImage caption: The Brandenburg Gate was lit up, with Berlin’s mayor expressing unity with Ukrainians and Russians who want peaceI don’t see how NATO can possibly give Putin the written assurance he wants. He knows NATO membership is not on the agenda, but he wants it in writing, to flap in Zelensky’s face. How can they possibly give him that?
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