re: Russia may cripple Europe if it decides to suspend oil & gas shipments to them

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Russia won’t do it. They need the money and if they follow through then it takes away the threat leverage from constantly threatening to stop flow.

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Exactly.

Putin practices diplomacy through threats. The power isn’t in carrying them out, it’s in people believing he might. Once you actually follow through on something that hurts you as much or more than the other side, the leverage disappears.

Cutting off energy to Europe would do exactly that. Russia needs the revenue and the political leverage that comes from being a supplier. If they permanently shut the valve, Europe just accelerates diversification and Russia loses the tool entirely.

Same thing with his nuclear rhetoric. Putin periodically reminds the world it has nukes, says he's really going to use them this time if a thing happens, the thing happens, and then… nothing. If he actually crossed that line, the entire strategic environment changes overnight in ways that are massively worse for him and Russia.

Keep the threat alive, keep markets and governments nervous, and you keep the leverage intact. The moment you actually pull the trigger on a self-defeating move, the threat stops being useful and just becomes self-defeating.

There are existing Russian pipelines to China, Power of Siberia 1 and ESPO pipeline.

And there are proposed new pipeline projects expected within the next couple of years such as Power of Siberia 2 and Far Eastern route.

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They can buy Venezuelan oil as we take our cut.

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Leaving Putin with little future leverage and even less money. Fine by me, but Putin isn’t a stupid man. He understands that actually following through on something like that would be the equivalent of cutting off his nose to spite his face.

What surprises me a little is how quickly he’s going back to the same well considering how much the returns have diminished since 2022. Every time he rattles that saber now, Europe has a little more LNG capacity, a few more suppliers, and a little less dependence.

And it’s remarkable how much he’s managed to narrow Russia’s strategic position. Ten years ago Russia had multiple directions it could lean economically, diplomatically, and militarily. Now it’s increasingly tied to Iran and the norks for basic survival. That’s not exactly the trajectory of a country expanding its leverage.

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The Germans are being run by WEF aligned punks and must be crippled.

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The entire EU is being run by the WEF. The smarter nations have started to resist somewhat by opting to pay penalties rather than taking the Radical Muslims and allowing them to run wild and overtake their countries.

didnt they say this about Ukraine? and Nordstream?

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Europe is done, over, and will be an outwardly Islamic controlled state within 5 years. Those cowards have surrendered themselves to the weak arse, globalist, Marxist ideology.

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The Islamic religion is one of three "official" religions of Russia.

After Istanbul, Moscow is Europe's largest Muslim city (if you count Istanbul as being "in Europe").

Russia is far more Muslim that France, UK, etc and certainly you are conveniently ignoring how anti-Muslim Eastern Europe is. The Baltic States of Estonia and Latvia and Lithuania don't have a single mosque and neither does Poland, which is one of Europe's biggest countries.

Meanwhile, enjoy some pictures from Moscow's high holy days.

If our politicians we’re corrupt scum bags they would be pushing to have important thing people need made in the US . At minimum what we would all need. Who ever controls the things in people lives they need control the people . We need to make sure no countries control us . Even red states should work on this in case there is ever a chance of splitting the country.

Why would Putin NOT stop sending oil and gas to Europe?????

I hope he does! frick Europe! Those cowards have rolled over and allowed themselves to be punked by the Islamist death cult. This is the biggest common denominator between us and Russia, neither are willing to allow that death cult to assume control.

They have it coming, stupid to set up economic supply chain dependency with a stated adversary.