America wants Europe to “compensate for energy losses caused by Ukraine aggression”
US calls Nord Stream explosions a “huge opportunity”
The Biden administration is calling the Nord Stream blasts a golden opportunity. The alleged “sabotage” could decouple Europe from Russian energy. America is stepping into the breach as Europe’s new leading gas supplier.
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Huge underwater explosions in the North Sea this week: It is unclear who or what is behind the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines.
Europe wants to do without Russian gas as quickly as possible – and according to the Russian energy company Gazprom, it has to do so “indefinitely” because of the Nord Stream explosions. Apparently this is not inconvenient for America. At a press conference on Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (60) and his Canadian counterpart Mélanie Joly (43) spoke of “pipeline sabotage”. Blinken sees the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines as a “huge opportunity” to decouple Europe from Russian energy.
Washington has been trying for years to persuade EU leaders to swap Russian gas for American LNG (liquefied natural gas). Compared to conventional natural gas, LNG can be transported by ship. The costly and politically controversial construction of pipelines such as Nord Stream 1 and 2 is no longer necessary.
Blinken said on Friday that the US is now “the leading supplier of LNG to Europe”. The Nord Stream explosions proved to be a “great opportunity,” Blinken said, “to end dependence on Russian energy once and for all, depriving Vladimir Putin of the ability to weaponize energy as a means of enforcing his imperial to take plans». According to Blinken, the US could “compensate for gas and oil losses in Europe caused by Russian aggression against Ukraine”.
Mutual finger pointing
It is unclear who is behind the Nord Stream attacks. In a speech on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin (69) blamed “Anglo-Saxons”, i.e. the USA and Great Britain, for the explosions. “It is obvious to everyone who benefits from it,” said Putin. “Those who benefit from it are the ones who did it.”
European security agencies believe massive explosive devices were detonated – each with a potential force of 500 kilograms of TNT. This can be concluded from the seismic signals. The high explosive power also indicates that a state was at work and not some terrorist group.
According to experts from the German secret service, Russia’s military has the know-how and the equipment to operate on the seabed, the “Spiegel” reports: “Western secret services know of underwater robots in Russian stocks that are able to get from Russia along the pipeline to the planned attack sites in order to attach explosive charges there. »
Accordingly, the US secret service CIA had warned the German government weeks ago of possible attacks on gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. (kes)