Author: Xiao Er Pang source: wechat official account: think tank Bai Xiaosheng
I suddenly remembered the first day of the G-7 summit. In the conference room, British Prime Minister Johnson asked, “shall we wear or take off our coats? Can we take off our clothes?” Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau said that let the photographer take a group photo.
Johnson immediately added, “we must show that we are tougher than Putin. That’s it! We must show them our pectoral muscles.”
So there was this picture of me undressing in the conference room.
In response, Putin only said, “I don’t know how they want to take it off: to the waist or below the waist? But I think this is a disgusting scene.”
Anyway, I stopped breathing for you. Let’s see if you can keep your pants.
It has been more than half a year since the Russian Ukrainian conflict broke out in February 2022. The military conflicts in Donetsk and other places are still continuing, and there is far from any sign of an end, or even just a prelude.
In the past six months, Russia has not been in a hurry, clocking in and out of work every day like a loafer, touching the fish again when it has nothing to do, and it does not want to end in a hurry.
In the past six months, the United States has not been in a hurry. It has not only given NATO an excuse for a new round of expansion, but also given us arms manufacturers rich orders.
In the past six months, diplomatic means have failed, the US threat has no effect, the Western sanctions have no effect, and the permanent security guarantee promised by the West has not provided any substantive guarantee to Ukraine.
This conflict is bound to be protracted and blunt. The outcome of the conflict depends on who can persist longer financially.
The weather is getting colder, winter is getting closer, prices in Europe continue to soar, and energy prices soar. In August, the inflation rate in the euro area reached an annual rate of 9.1%, another record high. Every month is a new high, there is no highest, only higher, ha ha, Europeans are more concerned about their eating and heating.
So far, the United States is not in a hurry and Russia is not in a hurry. It is Europe that pays the most for this conflict. The brain is a good thing. I wonder if they are all sharpening their knives and bleeding the fat pig of Europe. The Europeans themselves do not know it. They have a posture of being sold and helping to count the money.
On September 2, Gazprom (Gazprom) said that due to multiple equipment failures, the “beixi-1” natural gas pipeline would completely stop gas transmission until the failure was eliminated. This has made the prospects of European countries, which are already facing a “gas shortage”, even worse.
In July, Russia reduced the natural gas supply of beixi-1 on the pretext of pipeline maintenance. The pipeline only operated at 40% capacity. On July 11, it was shut down for another 10 days and then resumed. By the end of July, the daily transmission of beixi-1 continued to drop to 20% of its full capacity.
If you want to close it, you can open it. If you want to flirt with you, you can flirt with you. The key is that you have no temper.
Since July, the intermittent beixi-1 has been closed indefinitely this time. Russia wants to clean up Europe and stop supplying natural gas.
The reason given by Russia is that Siemens’ turbines have design defects, the turbines are leaking oil, and there is a risk of explosion. Siemens said there was no problem, even if there was one, we could fix it, but you had to let me fix it.
Anyway, this turbine does not know whether it should have problems or not. Beixi No. 1 turbine is now Schrodinger’s cat.
The Kremlin spokesman said: the West thinks that Russia is deliberately trying to embarrass Europe by deliberately stopping gas transmission, but our equipment really needs maintenance. And who’s to blame? It is not because of the Western sanctions against Russia. These sanctions have seriously affected the process of Russian gas transmission to Europe. If the West does not lift the sanctions against Russia first, Russia will really be unable to supply gas to Europe.
At this time, Erdogan came forward and said, yes, Russia is right. This winter, European countries will reap what they sown.
For Russia, anyway, natural gas is in my hands. If you sell it or not, it will not be given to you if it is burned in vain.
A large amount of natural gas originally intended for export to Germany is being burned at the liquid natural gas plant at the starting point of the Beixi No. 1 pipeline, near the Finnish border, and in the poltovaya region northwest of St. Petersburg, Russia.
Fires can be seen from Finland. This natural gas plant can burn 4.34 million cubic meters of natural gas every day, worth 10 million euros.
Although the EU’s gas storage facilities have now achieved the 80% gas storage target, what will happen after that?
If Russia’s natural gas supply is completely cut off, natural gas will be one of the decisive factors for the economic growth of European countries. If a large area of industrial gas is affected, it will directly drag the EU economy to the brink of recession.
Among them, Germany is the most affected. According to a Reuters survey of economists from August 29 to September 1, the German economy will shrink for three consecutive quarters from this quarter. If the German economy falls into recession, it will bring chain reactions to the whole of Europe.
It’s difficult to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, so cut expenditure. Germany has issued a draft to strictly limit the maximum temperature of offices in public buildings: light physical work dominated by sitting office, 19 degrees; Light physical work, mainly standing and walking, 18 degrees; Moderate physical work dominated by sitting, 18 degrees; Moderate physical labor, mainly standing and walking, 16 degrees; High physical labor, 12 degrees.
In order to save energy, Switzerland is even more outrageous. People who do not comply with the new regulations on natural gas use in winter will be severely punished. Those who turn on the heating temperature indoors above 19 degrees will be fined at least 30 Swiss francs and up to 3000 francs a day. Those who are serious will face imprisonment! What about democracy and freedom.
New regulations on the use of natural gas in winter
Worried about risks and public opinion, Germany will not easily use its natural gas savings except in extreme cases.
Therefore, in the winter of this year and next year, in addition to saving food and clothing, Germany will also rely on the supply of other countries to fill the huge gap caused by Russia’s supply reduction.
At present, the Netherlands provides 11% of the natural gas needed by Germany, which will rise to 33% in the future. The key is that there are also opinions in the Netherlands.
At the same time that energy prices are soaring, Germany is still discussing about not to “scrap nuclear weapons” by the end of this year as planned. This has angered several neighboring countries, asking Germany to postpone nuclear weapons scrapping. We can’t scrap nuclear weapons ourselves, but also collect our energy.
However, German economy minister Beck, who was born in the green party, strongly refused to extend the service life of Germany’s last three nuclear power plants.
It’s impossible for the German people to elect the Green Party themselves. It’s a disgusting thing. You have to recognize it with tears in your eyes.
What is the purpose of “fighting” with Russia?