Quote:
Originally Posted by opendoor
I don't think it makes much of a difference at all. Nord Stream 2 was never even finished, so that one's irrelevant. Nord Stream 1 could supply gas, but Russia stopped that a month ago after several months of running it at 20% capacity.
Basically, no one was relying on either of those pipelines to supply gas this year. I suppose Russia could have tried to use Nord Stream 1 as a carrot to get concessions, but to what end? No one other than Germany was going to be influenced by that.
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Russia stopped the flow and was trying to negotiate lifting some sanctions in exchange for re-starting the flow. With no direct line to Germany, they can no longer try to influence Germany directly. Having a potential pipeline there was a big plus for Russian influence over Germany if the winter gets bad. There was a lot of worry among Germany's neighbours that Germany may give in at some point, but that likely won't be an option now.