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by StudentStuff 3110 days ago
Hasn't Russia been all too keen to flex its might when it comes to Natural Gas too? As most of the nations in Eastern and Central Europe rely on Natural Gas coming from Russia for heat & some power.

The soft power Russia has seems to be growing, never mind the wars they are all too happy to fight without acknowledging that a war is being waged.
3 comments
v_lisivka 3110 days ago
You are right. War in Ukraine was started to kick out Shell out of natural gas field near to Sloviansk, which was able to fulfill needs of Ukraine and Europe, so Sloviansk was first target for Russian "insurgents".

AFAIK, the same reason holds for Syria: to stop Qatar attempt to reach Europe.

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Tade0 3110 days ago
It has, but fortunately since the oil price slump they haven't really been in a position to do this, because they need the revenue to keep their operations going.

Meanwhile Europe is diversifying its sources of fuels, so it seems that they will lose any ability to do that eventually.

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blattimwind 3110 days ago
Gas exports have been frequently used as leverage against transit countries, but not against destination countries. It wouldn't per se surprise me that it's just about cutting the middleman out (cf. nordstream).
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