[fuoqi]

Are you serious? The NS/NS2 pipelines were a constant temptation for Germany and a good leverage for Russia. Before the pipelines got blown up we have seen quite sizable protests in Germany with demands to open NS2 and find some compromise with Russia.

By physically removing capability to transport gas from Russia to Germany, US not only secures fat margins for several years (at the very least until new LNG sources become available), but also significantly reduces probability of Germany acting independently in the near term, even if energy situation becomes critical. Don't forget that the gas storage numbers do not show the whole picture. A lot of energy-intensive industry got shut down and will not reopen in the near future.

[justapassenger]

Sizeable protests? That’s a slight overstatement.

Russia lost 99% of leverage the moment they attacked Ukraine. And they lost remaining 1% the moment the weaponized energy.

Germany was dumb, but it’s not that dumb to enter any agreement with Russia for any foreseeable future. It’s literarily like going back to loan shark for extra money, after they broke your legs last week.

[fuoqi]

Tens of thousands (24k by some estimates) is quite sizable in my book and it was long before cold weather and full economic impact of the high prices. The inflation issue is #1 in internal politics for many countries, add recession and job losses caused by raising energy prices on top of that and you can see environment prime for toppling governments. With rising populism everywhere the simple solution of using NS/NS2 for at least several years in exchange for not supporting Ukraine too much could be quite dangerous for the existing establishment.

>weaponized energy

I always find it amusing how Russia gets blamed for "weaponization", while US/Europe continuously use their control over technology and financial system as a weapon.

[HKH2]

> And they lost remaining 1% the moment the weaponized energy.

What? Who weaponized energy?

Do you think that Russia should have conducted business as usual after 300 billion in foreign oil reserves were seized?

You don't have to like Russia, but you can at least be honest.