We tend to think of this war as confined to Ukraine, but it is really a war between Russia and Europe--a war whose violent side has not spread beyond the borders of Ukraine yet. And one could, of course, include the entire Western alliance, because Europe is a vital part of that. The main weapons used on the nonviolent fronts are primarily economic and diplomatic. The sabotage of the Russian pipeline in the Baltic was part of Russia's economic front, as it seeks to cut off the delivery of essential LNG supplies. The defensive reaction has been to ship LNG into Europe, which is not prepared for that form of delivery. Here is an article from the front lines of that economic war:
It's not so much about this war, than a longer term plan of Putin to make Europe reliant on Russian energy. Before the war, Germany got 55% of its natural gas from Russia. Sure, they
could have diversified, but who's going to invest billions of euros to build LNG terminals, which might never recoup the investment?
The root cause of the problem is that in Europe and west in general, the energy industry is controller by private companies, whereas in Russia they're state controlled and are capable of longer term planning and also using energy as a political tool: friendly governments get discounts, unfriendly ones are threatened with cutting off the deliveries. Ironically, only way to shield from this is to more socialism. In retrospect, German government
should have made a political decision that they will build those terminals for more expensive LNG and cap the Russian gas deliveries even if it doesn't make economic sense.
There are similar risky dependencies to China for solar panels, rare Earth minerals, and whatever other resources.
Rope-a-dope boxing strategy.
on Twitter: "Ukraine's general staff confirms that russians are abandoning their positions in the northwestern parts of the #Kherson front.
