In this situation, Putin is playing the last and strongest trump he still has: a complete stop to gas supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline deliver it to the West. He’s quite successful with that. Gas and the associated electricity prices have risen a hundredfold on the spot markets.By February at the latest, when the reservoirs are empty, it will become clear whether the full-bodied assurances that we can deal with the delivery stop are true or whether it is blackout coming. Maybe then Putin will triumph. But not for long. Because he has so discredited Russia as a gas supplier that the Europeans are making themselves independent of his pipelines. Much to the delight of Norway, Holland, Belgium and Azerbaijan.Putin’s Nord Stream 1 and 2, which should have supplied Europe with gas for at least 50 years, are becoming an 18 billion dollar industrial ruin. And the annual 100 billion euros from gas exports to Western Europe will be sorely missed in Russia. A bloody own goal – without meaning or purpose.
