Plus or minus the chronicles of "Gazprom"
Not a word after?
Our monthly chronicles on the construction of Nord Stream 2 are scheduled for the first days of March. But it is impossible to remain silent about the latest events. As well as the conflicting comments about them.
In April, at the latest - at the beginning of May 2021, the construction of the gas pipeline will be completed. Its commissioning, most likely, will not be very prompt. Due to organizational problems, but this is no longer so important - gas pipes do not age quickly.
But even when the very first of billions of cubic meters of blue fuel passes through them, the hype will not subside. All the forces of the world mass media will be thrown into the fact that the Russian "Gazprom" will pay for the deed.
And best of all - by launching some other pipeline project in which there will be no talk of bypassing Ukraine and Poland. It will obviously not be enough for Gazprom's opponents to establish an elementary order with the old pipes.
But even now, almost everything possible is being done so that even at the finish line of SP-2 Gazprom continues to bear exorbitant expenses. However, if this was the incentive to admit broad masses of unqualified investors to the capital of the monopoly, maybe it is for the better?
Read the entire list, please
After the sanctions against the Russian pipelayer Fortuna came into force on February 22, 18 European companies related to Nord Stream 2 announced their withdrawal from the project.
The majority on this list are insurance firms headquartered in the UK. In addition to them, the Swiss Zurich Insurance Group, the French Axa Group and the German concerns Bilfinger SE and Munich Re Syndicate also leave the race.
In parallel with this, one of its five direct participants, the German company Wintershall Dea, announced the completion of financing the project. Until the full fulfillment of its obligations to participate in the SP-2 project, there was not much left for it - 220 million euros out of the planned 950.
The missing funds are likely to be invested by Gazprom. But whether American sanctions will be sufficient justification for Wintertshall Dea in case of counterclaims from the Russian side is a big question.
But both events only confirm our estimates. Gazprom will not be left alone. But the degree of its influence, not on Europe, but on the SP-2 project itself, becomes, if I may say so, self-sufficient.
Geopolitics and simple economics
Washington has already started talking about the fact that Nord Stream 2 cannot be viewed as an obstacle to the supply of American LNG. But there they immediately brought to the fore not the economy, but geopolitics. That could not be ignored by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
It was not by chance that Deputy Minister Maria Zakharova quoted the official representative of the American State Department, who directly stated about
"Washington's concern about the possible influence of Russia on Europe thanks to SP-2."
The reasons for Washington's rejection of the project are geopolitics and the growing influence of Russia.
Meanwhile, practical Europeans, especially Germans, seem to care only about profit. They will not receive such cheap gas as Russian for a very long time.
How can one disagree with the popular publicist Anatoly Wasserman, who is convinced that to stop the construction of "SP-2", German policy
"Must go crazy."
Maria Zakharova also did not hide her bewilderment:
“The US constantly declares that the economy and energy cannot be politicized!
And now those who do not want to politicize the economy and energy will help those who benefit from the project from an economic and energy point of view, not to implement it? "
And now those who do not want to politicize the economy and energy will help those who benefit from the project from an economic and energy point of view, not to implement it? "
It is obvious to everyone that the closer the ambitious Gazprom project is to completion, the more there are those who want to earn extra money there, or rather just profit. And for the majority it is no longer important - just on it, or on the opposition to it.
Circulations are not off scale
It seems that now only pro-Western media are actively replicating the pseudo-political hype that the United States is raising around Nord Stream 2. From behind which "tough" statements and "latest" warnings from Poland and Ukraine are regularly heard.
It is difficult to understand what real economic interest is in whipping up passions over the SP-2 also in the Baltic states? Most likely, anti-Russian propaganda is being paid well there, and clearly not from the local pocket.
It didn't take long for Kiev and Warsaw to go to extremes, accusing Russia of using
"One of the most powerful weapons is the dependence of neighbors on energy supply."
But how much you can sign your own powerlessness, we from Russia, in general, do not understand.
But how much you can sign your own powerlessness, we from Russia, in general, do not understand.
But the purely mercantile interest is immediately understandable. No, no one in their right mind would think of turning off the gas to the Poles and Ukrainians. More dear to yourself. But after all, both Poland and Ukraine have been saving on the costs of maintaining their transit systems for many years.
All claims from the Near West and Southwest boil down to forcing Gazprom to fork out. Moreover, it is advisable to fork out for a complete resuscitation of the catastrophically aging GTS.
Competitors need not worry
At the same time, Warsaw is still trying to impose on Germany the supply of Norwegian gas through its own gas pipeline "Baltic Pipe". However, they cannot be compared with Gazprom's ones, both in terms of volume and price.
In addition, the Baltic Pipe project, promoted by the Poles and Norwegians, will still have to be coordinated with the SP-2 operator. Already because the pipelines intersect somewhere in the area of the very disputed zone, the purity and innocence of which Denmark has defended for so long.
The latter, by the way, is now very active in its participation in the completion of the laying of the SP-2 pipes.
It is interesting that even under the most negative scenario for Gazprom, it may well be just about the construction of new gas pipelines through Poland and Ukraine. Of course, if the reconstruction of the Urengoy-Uzhgorod and Yamal-Europe highways turns out to be excessively costly.
Whether Poland and Ukraine will be able to count on any more compensation from Washington after that, this is a question that does not even require an answer.
If you want to get something out of Moscow, as the Polish and Ukrainian mass media repeat with enviable regularity, then it looks like a pipe dream.
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