| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Western political system doesn't bring smart people to the top – Putin |
| 2023-10-12 |
| [RT] Russia sees absolutely no sense in the EU’s current policy of forgoing Russian energy supplies, particularly gas, President Vladimir Putin told the Russian Energy Week forum on Wednesday. He added that "the modern political system in [the West] obviously sometimes brings not the smartest people to the top." Speaking about the issue of Russian gas exports to Europe, he pointed to what he called a lack of common sense in some European capitals. "There is no sensible explanation to why some European economies, including Germany's, should behave like this," the president said, referring to the situation in the European energy market. He called it "surprising" that European nations did not demand that Kiev reopen one of the Russian gas pipelines going through Ukraine after it was shut down. Ukraine halted Russian gas transit along one of the routes running through its territory back in May, arguing that it had lost control over one of the gas compressor stations. The station in question is located in the Lugansk People’s Republic, which voted to join Russia last year. The Ukrainian pipeline operator claimed that Russian forces controlling the compressor station were somehow "interfering" with its technical processes and shut down its part of the line. Moscow denied the allegations and warned that Russian gas exports could not be effectively re-routed to other pipelines to compensate for the shutdown. In July, Kiev said that it might cut Russian gas supplies to Europe altogether as it does not intend to renew the transit deal with Moscow. "I believe, by the winter of 2024, Europe will not need Russian gas at all," Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko told Politico. The 2019 transit agreement allows Russia to export some 40 billion cubic meters of gas per year via Ukraine until the end of 2024. A third of this volume should have reached Europe via a pipeline that Kiev has already cut off. "Europe could have just said: ’Open this route now. We need it to support our economy. But no," Putin said, commenting on Kiev’s actions. A similar approach could have been used when Poland terminated a supply contract with Russia ahead of its end-2022 expiry date. Warsaw rejected Moscow's demand for ruble payments in May 2022 and started using its leg of the Yamal-Europe Pipeline to pump stored gas from Germany. he Yamal-Europe Pipeline, which links European customers to the natural gas fields in Russia’s north, used to carry nearly half of Gazprom’s westbound gas deliveries. Moscow repeatedly stated that it was ready to restart supplies of natural gas to the EU via this route, adding that the shipments had been halted in the first place for political reasons. Germany might have pointed to the fact that it was the biggest donor to the EU common budget while Poland was the largest recipient of EU funds, Putin said, adding that Berlin might have told Warsaw "not to bite the hand that feeds you." The German government could have also approved the use of the Russian Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the Russian leader stated. One of the two pipeline strings remained operable after a series of underwater explosions that destroyed the other three strings of Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2. "Nord Stream 2 is a direct [route] to Germany," Putin said, adding that it could have "delivered 27.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year." Instead, Germany "opts to buy [gas] with a 30% premium and not use our energy resource. That’s their choice," the president added. |
| Posted by:Grom the Reflective |
| #13 I would trade integrity for brains. Eisenhower was probably the last President with brains and integrity. |
| Posted by: Airandee 2023-10-12 20:29 |
| #12 More powerful than politicians is the media. I was interviewed once by a reporter. A group of us volunteer firefighters were sitting around the lounge when a reporter from a large newspaper on the area walked in. He wanted to know how we felt about how the county commissioners dealt with our little volunteer fire department (there were 10 small town fire departments in that county). 1) He was very surprisingly accurate in publishing our ("unofficial") opinions. 2) It really pissed off the county commissioners to no end to hear we had a voice for once. It was pretty cool. |
| Posted by: Captain Splat8849 2023-10-12 12:22 |
| #11 No political system brings the smart people to the top. They'd rather somebody else did this crap, while they do what they'd like. If you look back at your time at school, you could see the workers, the smart ones, the atheletes. The politicians were the ones running for cheerleader. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2023-10-12 10:12 |
| #10 |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2023-10-12 09:36 |
| #9 Yes, it seems that power attracts sociopaths like candles attract moths. But it isn't just in the West. The best we can do is institute a Constitution that limits the power of government and provides for the three different branches to check and balance each other. Too bad the Constitution says nothing about the Deep State or the Military Industrial Complex but I'd bet other countries have those too. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2023-10-12 09:09 |
| #8 ^😊🤣😃😂😁 |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2023-10-12 09:05 |
| #7 Given that libel laws are nearly non-existent, why put your family through such a process? If you're smart, you avoid that. Thus you have politics. That comes from two words - poly meaning 'many' and ticks which are 'blood suckers'. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2023-10-12 08:59 |
| #6 ^Monopolar world. |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2023-10-12 07:22 |
| #5 Politics really doesn't attract any Lincolns or Churchills these days. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-10-12 07:21 |
| #4 But they live and remain worthless for ever. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2023-10-12 07:16 |
| #3 ...Well, stopped clock and all that. Mike |
| Posted by: MikeKozlowski 2023-10-12 06:13 |
| #2 Eastern political system doesn't bring smart people to the top either apparently. |
| Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance 2023-10-12 05:31 |
| #1 Look at Trump and Biden; 120 million Americans can be president, and look at the drop kicks the US picks. |
| Posted by: Herb Johnson6409 2023-10-12 04:55 |