Sanctions Against Russia Doomed?

• European nations concerned about keeping the pipelines open, not punishing Putin.

By Ronald L. Ray —

Efforts by the United States, European Union (EU) and Zionist plutocrats to isolate Russia and harm its people through economic sanctions seem doomed to failure, if recent energy news out of Central and Eastern Europe is true.

According to reports from the German newspaper, National-Zeitung, Austria has thumbed its nose at Brussels bureaucrats by pushing ahead toward construction of a pipeline to bring much needed natural gas into the country via a route that avoids the political instability of Ukraine. The South Stream pipeline is part of a multifaceted diversification of fuel transport, begun in 2007 by Russian oil and gas giant Open Joint Stock Company Gazprom (OAO Gazprom), and is designed to ensure greater and more stable energy availability on the European continent.

In the shadow of a state visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Vienna this past June, the Austrian energy concern OMV AG signed contracts with Gazprom to build the Austrian section of the pipeline, scheduled to begin carrying natural gas to the neutral Central European nation by December 2015. Multiple branches of the planned pipeline route are intended to bring Russian gas as far as Italy and Germany.

The Russian segment has been laid already through the Black Sea, with construction now under way in Bulgaria.

Other countries set to benefit are Hungary, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, and possibly Montenegro and Greece. Some of these nations are completely dependent on Russia for energy supplies. Gazprom has construction partnerships with corporations in additional countries, like France, as well.

But the U.S. has sought to impose economic sanctions on the Russian bear based on false allegations of Putin’s responsibility for Ukrainian political upheavals. It likewise has bullied the EU apparatchiks into reluctantly endorsing the sanctions.

This seems merely a facade, however, as most continental European nations have significant trade interests tied to Russia. U.S. and EU sanctions will likely hurt only our vassal European “allies,” and not their intended target, as Russia develops alternative markets, particularly in China.

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz rejected criticism from the EU: “We do not need just more suppliers. On the contrary, we also need more diversity for how the energy can flow to us.” In other words, the Ukrainian transport bottleneck has to be overcome.

For the present, the EU has succeeded in getting the Bulgarian government to halt construction of South Stream in that country, claiming that Russia’s bilateral contracts with companies in its partner-nations violate EU regulations prohibiting the gas extractor from owning the pipeline—ostensibly to prevent an energy monopoly. In this case, however, the restrictions are meant to siphon off both Russian gas and Russian profits, to the detriment of the European worker.

The construction stall followed a visit to Bulgaria by peripatetic warmonger Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other belligerent senators.

“McCain is everywhere there, when it is something against Moscow,” opined National-Zeitung.

All of the affected countries, however, are adamant about completing South Stream, so it is hardly likely that the EU energy commissar will be able to hold back progress for long. Industry rumors suggest an EU-Gazprom agreement may, in fact, arrive soon.

As OMV Director General Gerhard Roiss previously stated, “I believe it must be clear to all that Europe needs Russian gas, and I believe the EU Commission also understands that.” He said that Gazprom had been a reliable partner for 50 years, and he wanted to build for “the next 50.”

The U.S. and Israel, apart from political considerations, hope to obtain a large European market for their own natural gas by squeezing out Russia. This will fail, though, as the European shipping port infrastructure does not exist to handle sufficient liquified natural gas, which would in any case be many times more expensive than Russian supplies.

Russia possesses 44 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves and plans to pipe 63 billion cubic meters annually through South Stream by 2019, in addition to what already flows through its two northerly pipelines. That is enough to power 38 million households.

Ironically, it seems that the U.S.’s militaristic imperialism in Eastern Europe and continual interference in the affairs of other sovereign nations have been dealt a major blow by something as simple as what once made America great: free enterprise and nationalism.

Ronald L. Ray is a freelance author and an assistant editor of THE BARNES REVIEW. He is a descendant of several patriots of the American War for Independence.