Kek, I'll change it back eventually.
Gov Christie says Jan. 6 “was a riot that was incited by Donald Trump” in an effort to intimidate then-Vice Pres. Pence and Congress.
“He wanted the election to be overturned.”
https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1490330134410403844
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/pipeline-politics-hits-multipolar-realities-nord-stream-2-ukraine-crisis
Pipeline Politics Hits Multipolar Realities: Nord Stream 2 & The Ukraine Crisis
Amid escalating tensions between US/NATO and Russia, all eyes are on Ukraine, but Nord Stream 2, a pipeline built to bring Russian gas under the Baltic Sea directly to Germany, is an integral part of the story.
US Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, asserted (Jan 27), “If Russia invades Ukraine one way or another, … we will work with Germany to ensure it (the pipeline) does not move forward.” Delayed by US threats and sanctions, Nord Stream 2 highlights why countries are challenging US leadership.
Since the 1960s when Europe first began importing Russian gas, Washington perceived Russian energy as a threat to US leadership and Europe’s energy security. More recently, with fracking, the US has become the world’s largest gas producer and a major exporter of LNG (liquefied natural gas). It wants to muscle in on Europe’s huge market, displacing Russian gas. With Nord Stream 2 completed and filled while it awaits German regulatory approval, the stakes are high.
Soon after pipeline construction began in 2018, the US passed a law threatening sanctions on the Swiss ship laying the pipe. The Swiss pulled out and two Russian vessels completed the line despite sanctions. The US threatened German contractors too, but Germany stood firm.
In 2021, with construction almost complete, German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the White House, insisting on Nord Stream 2. President Biden gave way. He wanted to mend relations with Germany – the European Union’s most powerful country.
Nord Stream 2, like its predecessor Nord Stream 1, began as a joint venture (51% Russia’s Gazprom, 49% Royal Dutch Shell as well as Austrian, French and German companies). Then Poland’s government agency responsible for monopoly regulation forced European partners to relinquish their share, creating another delay. The European companies gave up their shareholding but remained as equivalent financial investors in the pipeline.
Upon the Europeans relinquishing their shareholding, Gazprom became the sole pipeline owner. It is also the world’s largest gas supplier, with a gas pipeline monopoly in Russia. Gazprom wants to deliver its own gas via its pipeline to Europe. The EU, on the other hand, has maintained since 2009 that pipeline operators, in order to encourage market competition, cannot own the gas they carry. After construction of Nord Stream 2 began, the EU extended its rules to new marine pipelines originating abroad.
Nord Stream 2 was the only pipeline affected. While those pipelines completed prior to May 2019 were exempt, its completion was delayed by US sanctions on pipelaying. Gazprom claimed discrimination and appealed. In August 2021, a German court rejected the appeal. Gazprom then appealed to Germany’s Supreme Court.
German industrialists are desperate for Russian gas. Germany has only 17 days of gas supply in storage. Volatile short-term spot prices have compounded their woes. EU gas imports have increasingly shifted from long-term contracts with prices indexed to crude oil toward short-term deals by multiple traders in spot markets.
In 2020, spot prices were roughly half those of Gazprom’s long-term contracts. They surged as much as sevenfold in 2021, reflecting a mix of factors. On the demand side, economic revival from the pandemic boosted demand for gas in Asia as well as Europe. On the supply side, green sources of energy diminished in central Europe because of cloudy windless days. With the decommissioning of coal and nuclear power stations, utilities turned to natural gas.
European politicians blamed Russia for high gas prices, but Gazprom affirmed it was supplying the amounts stipulated in its long-term contracts. Gazprom wants long-term contracts to underpin the huge capital costs of gasfield and pipeline investments.
Russia is a petro-state. It’s the world’s single largest exporter of natural gas, and the second largest oil exporter – just behind Saudi Arabia. Pipelines and sea routes to market are vital to its economy. Russia wants to sell oil and gas in Asia and Europe, and they want to buy it. Nord Stream 2 makes commercial sense. It incurs no transit fees. The route to market is much shorter than aging pipelines via Ukraine. For its part, Ukraine depends on transit fees from gas shipped through these pipelines.
Nord Stream 2 remains controversial, bitterly opposed by Poland and Ukraine who presume it will reduce volumes and transit fees on pipelines through their countries. Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and others want it. Germany, which carries huge weight in the EU, sees gas as a transition fuel after phasing out nuclear and coal.
Numerous hurdles during and since construction have delayed Nord Stream 2’s certification. The most recent forced its Swiss operating company to form a German subsidiary for the pipeline section in German waters. Upon eventual certification, Germany will become Europe’s main entry point for Russian gas.
The current crisis between Russia and US/NATO has been brewing for many years. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, NATO expanded membership to Eastern Europe. NATO facilitates US leadership, keeping European countries on its side against Russia. From a Russian viewpoint, NATO is provocative and threatening.
Part of the agreement underpinning the USSR’s dissolution was Western assurance that it would not expand into Russia’s sphere of influence, a pledge NATO most recently violated by stationing troops, ships and planes along Russia’s borders. The West accuses Russia of interference in Ukraine. Russia points to a 2014 Western-inspired coup in Ukraine and legitimate grievances of Russian-speakers in the breakaway Donbass republics. I document the two narratives in my book Oil and World Politics.
In December 2021, Russia presented draft treaties to the US and NATO, demanding a complete overhaul of Europe’s security architecture. Russia stressed the principle of indivisible and equal security for all countries, as agreed by all 56 members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) at Istanbul (1999) and reaffirmed at Astana (2010). Members expressly agreed not to strengthen their security at the expense of other members’ security. The US is a signatory.
President Putin warned that if the West continued its aggressive policies (NATO’s expansion and missile deployment in eastern Europe), Russia would take ‘military-technical’ reciprocal measures. He said, “they have pushed us to a line that we can’t cross.”
Russia’s initiative put the cat among the pigeons. A succession of high-level meetings occurred between Russia and the US, NATO and OSCE. Washington presented written responses (Jan 26), seeking to narrow the debate to Ukraine and alleging the Russians were poised to invade it. Russia insisted repeatedly it would not initiate an invasion but would support Donbass if the latter were attacked.
The US escalated tensions by repeating claims of an upcoming Russian invasion, even as Ukraine’s leaders expressed doubts. Washington threatened sanctions of unprecedented severity, including major Russian banks, high-tech goods, the SWIFT financial messaging system, and Nord Stream 2.
France and Germany balked because the sanctions would backfire on their economies. They appeared unconvinced Russia intended to attack unless provoked. A flurry of high-level bilateral discussions with Russia followed.
Significantly, representatives of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine (Jan 26) confirmed support for the 2015 Minsk II agreement and an unconditional ceasefire. Minsk-II requires Ukraine to negotiate with the two Donbass republics on autonomy within a federalized Ukraine but, thus far, no negotiations have been held.
The EU imports 40 percent of its gas from Russia. For Russia, the routes through Ukraine and Poland are unreliable, because of hostility in both countries. Ukraine has a long-term deal with Gazprom for gas transit until 2024. Ukraine earns big transit fees, roughly US$2 billion per year, and desperately wants to keep them. For its internal market, Ukraine buys Russian gas indirectly from Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
Whatever happens with Western sanctions, Russia has a strategic new market in China. Russia’s Power of Siberia pipeline began exporting gas from east Siberia to northeast China two years ago. The two countries have agreed to build a second line, Power of Siberia 2. It will bring gas from the Yamal peninsula in the Russian Arctic to China’s northeast. That means Yamal gas will be able to flow to China as easily as to Europe.
The current situation is dangerous and could easily escalate. Nord Stream 2 is critically important but national security trumps all. Security can only be achieved if it is universal. US efforts to contain Russia and maintain leadership over Europe are not working. The world has become multi-polar and Nord Stream 2 is a fulcrum at the centre of the current crisis.
https://www.rt.com/news/548458-north-korea-un-report-stealing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
North Korea developing nukes ‘through cyber means,’ has stolen cryptocurrency – secret UN report
Pyongyang reportedly obtained know-how for its nuclear program and more than $450 million from cyberattacks last year
North Korean hackers have stolen millions of dollars from international cryptocurrency exchanges, as well as obtaining intellectual property to be used for the development of nukes and missiles, according to a confidential UN report.
Details of the alleged cyberattacks are contained in papers submitted to the UN Security Council on Friday, according to Reuters.
“North Korea continued to seek material, technology and know-how for these programs overseas, including through cyber means and joint scientific research,” the confidential report said, as cited by the news agency.
In 2021, Pyongyang continued the “maintenance and development” of its “nuclear and ballistic missile infrastructure,” it added, while also alleging that it “demonstrated increased capabilities for rapid deployment.”
N. Korea confirms test of missile believed to be able to strike US territory
“Cyberattacks, particularly on cryptocurrency assets, remain an important revenue source,” the report claims. It stated that more than $50 million was stolen last year from at least three cryptocurrency platforms in North America, Europe and Asia. North Korea helped itself to another $400 million worth of digital assets through more cyberattacks, according to Chainalysis, as cited in the documents.
No nuclear weapons are known to have been tested in North Korea, and no long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles were launched in recent years. However, short-range and “possible intermediate-range” missile tests have continued, with the UN having recently expressed “great concern” and accused Pyongyang of “a clear violation of Security Council resolutions.”
North Korea says it is no longer bound by an earlier self-imposed moratorium on missile tests, since its talks with the West broke down under former US President Donald Trump.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-planning-nuclear-war-drills-warning-west-over-ukraine-us-officials
Russia Planning Nuclear War Drills As 'Warning' To West Over Ukraine: Pentagon
An alarmist new report from Financial Times cites US intelligence officials who say that Russia will use upcoming nuclear exercises in order to 'scare' and warn NATO against reacting militarily to any Russian incursion into Ukraine. "US military and intelligence officials believe Russia is planning a major nuclear weapons exercise this month as a warning to Nato not to intervene if President Vladimir Putin decides to invade," the new FT article begins.
"Russia generally holds its annual nuclear exercises — which involve testing intercontinental ballistic missiles from land, sea and air — in the fall. But the US believes Putin has decided to hold them earlier this year as a show of strength."
Getty Images
According to Thursday Congressional testimony cited in the report by Joint Chiefs chairman General Mark Milley and director of national intelligence Avril Haines, the Pentagon believes the exercises will likely be moved up to as early as mid-February. The drill will be a "show of force" aimed at both Ukraine and its Western backers in NATO.
Analyst Rebeccah Heinrichs with the hawkish D.C. think tank Hudson Institute described that given Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, "It would be an extremely provocative and harbinger of messages if they did it concurrently with an invasion."
For the past few weeks as Russia-Ukraine-NATO tensions ratcheted up dramatically, and now with the White House unusually talking about 'Russia false flag' scenarios, tensions have been on a knife edge. At the same time, Western media has been filled with shrill headlines warning of a WWIII coming due to "Russian aggression". This despite Ukraine's leaders themselves attempting to calm the rhetoric, stating their belief that the Russian side has yet to reach necessary troop level capability for a real large-scale invasion.
As an example, a weekend piece in Daily Mail proclaims, "Ukraine holds military exercises in CHERNOBYL in preparation for potential Russian invasion" - while underscoring the nuclear undertones to the tensions…
The bullets were real. But this was an exercise – a show of strength by Ukrainian forces designed to send a clear message to the Kremlin that they were ready to resist the Russian military forces building over the border just six miles away.
And the location could not have been more symbolic – for we were in the shattered urban landscape of Chernobyl, devastated by a nuclear accident in April 1986 that was covered up with terrible consequences by an appalling Russian regime.
And then there are these concerns…
A Ukraine Invasion Could Go Nuclear: 15 Reactors Would Be In War Zone https://t.co/kRwAGEbeCO
— Business Ukraine mag (@Biz_Ukraine_Mag) December 28, 2021
But after rising threats and counter-threats which have been near constant for much of the last two months, since the West began accusing Russia of a troop build-up of 100,000 threatening Ukraine, such sensational headlines are becoming almost commonplace.
Russia has been persistent in insisting it has no plans to invade Ukraine or "occupy" Kiev - as some US officials have alleged; however, with each passing day and week the standoff goes unresolved, the danger of a real shooting war based on the potential for unpredictable provocations certainly increases.