The Slave State

The lack of genuine outrage, as well as an adequate emergency response by Europe to the destruction of Nord Stream 2, reveals that this continent is not sovereign.

From Rubicon's World Editor

by Richard Abelson

[This article posted on 10/12/2022 is translated from the German on the Internet, Der Sklavenstaat.]

Imagine it's economic warfare and no one is looking. This is what is happening in Europe right now in the wake of the blowing up of the two Nord Stream pipelines. This act is one of the biggest attacks on European infrastructure in decades. Yet in Germany and other affected countries, this is almost accepted with a shrug of the shoulders. Just as if a pipeline could be replaced quickly. A truly sovereign continent with sovereign states would react completely differently to such a threat situation. Europe's silence is thus revealing and shows the world on the political stage what role Europe and its states play there - that of a vassal.

In Steve Bannon's War Room on Friday, September 30, investigative reporter Darren Beattie of Revolver News warned of a "giant leap toward Armageddon" following Vladimir Putin's sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines and annexation of the Donbass republics. Beattie called the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines "one of the most significant attacks on European infrastructure in several decades," which he described as a "dramatic escalation."

"The Europeans are all aware that this is probably coming from the NATO allies themselves. That's why they're good little vassal states and don't make a lot of noise about it."

Bannon asked Beattie if he had evidence to support his "explosive" allegations: Beattie described his conclusion as an "informed opinion based on reasonable inferences from the behavior of the countries involved."

Under normal circumstances, attacking the pipeline would be "an act of war" against the Germans, Beattie said, "and under any other circumstance the Germans would make a very big deal out of it."

"They say the passivity of the German elites and the German military in not saying, 'Russia did this, you blew this thing up,' ... You're saying the 'crickets' coming from there imply that a NATO ally would do this ... the United States or someone working with them?" asked Bannon.

"The United States or NATO-allied proxies," Beattie replied. "I'm not saying it was the Navy directly that did it. But I would say it's a reasonable conclusion given the motivation, given who benefits, and given the reaction to the sabotage by the European countries themselves, including a Polish political official who apparently was so upset and didn't get the memo that he immediately thanked the United States on Twitter."

Beattie was referring to Polish MEP Radek Sikorski, husband of The Atlantic editor Anne Applebaum, who posted a photo of the Nord Stream bubble saying "Thank you, USA" on Sept. 27, the day after the explosions, before later deleting the tweet.

"Nord Stream 2 energy is an indispensable part of understanding what this is all about," Beattie said.

"It's all about who controls Europe. Europe, we have since learned, is even more of a vassal state of the United States than we imagined, and one possible balancing factor for that has been the extreme complementarity between Germany and Russia.

Germany has a large economy and needs energy; Russia has cheap energy and needs to sell it. For the Russians, it was natural to supply Germany with energy in the form of Nord Stream. But that undermines the influence of the United States, both geopolitically and economically, because we want to sell our much more expensive LNG gas to Europe and have total influence over Europe."

Nord Stream 2 "has always been a thorn in the side of the United States military establishment," Beattie said, "particularly the Atlantic faction of the establishment, which is obsessed with destroying Russia and obsessed with maintaining total hegemony over Europe."

The United States, he said, "has taken many measures to try to sanction the pipeline, to try to support the Greens in Germany to oppose the pipeline. All of those measures didn't really work. In the days before the pipeline was sabotaged, there were big demonstrations in Germany, anticipating the energy problems of this winter, saying, look, we have this enormously expensive piece of infrastructure, this pipeline from Russia that can supply us with cheap energy, we are facing a very difficult energy situation in the winter. The only thing preventing the activation of this pipeline is the political hesitation of the German chancellor, who as the head of a vassal state is totally beholden to U.S. interests, and the fact that the Nord Stream pipeline was sabotaged takes this option off the table. Now that leverage that the Russians and, frankly, the Europeans had is gone, and they are completely at the mercy of the United States."

Beattie noted:

"When you look at the reactions, you don't see the kind of reaction that a reasonable sovereign state would have to an attack on its infrastructure of this magnitude because they are in the awkward position of knowing that the attack is coming from U.S. or NATO proxies. Their only option is to turn tail, keep their heads down, and keep their mouths shut, which is more or less what they've done."

"For all the talk about how brave Putin is ... Putin is not brave at all," Beattie said. "The U.S. and its NATO allies basically declared war on Russia by destroying Nord Stream, and Putin did nothing about it. ... The United States has followed through on what it wanted all along: the destruction of Nord Stream 2. Russia is doing nothing about it, and Europe is doing nothing about it."

"If it was something like an unspoken, tacit agreement, it's now clear to everyone that there are no real sovereign countries in Europe. Europe is a vassal state. Europe is a slave state of the United States. Putin basically tried to shame them for that in his speech. The only problem is that the Germans have no sense of shame, they have no pride, they don't feel that they deserve to be a sovereign nation. And therefore they will turn tail and pretend that nothing happened."

Editorial Note: This text first appeared under the title "Darren Beattie: 'Europe is Slave State of the United States - US Basically Declared War on Russia'" (VIDEO) at The Gateway Pundit. It was translated by the Rubicon volunteer translation team and proofread by the Rubicon volunteer proofreading team.

There is little point in stewing in one's own, albeit exquisite, juices. That's why Rubikon's world editorial team regularly collects and publishes voices from all over the world, primarily from the Anglo-American and Arab regions. What do critical contemporaries there think about geopolitical events? What ideas do they have for solving global problems? What developments are they observing that we in Europe may soon be facing as well? The view over the edge of the plate is also encouraging, because it makes clear: We are many, not alone!

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The self-destructive vassal

Just in time for the start of the Taiwan crisis, Germany is increasing its military presence in the Indo-Pacific and participating in U.S.-led exercises there.

21.09.2022 by Rubicon's World Editor

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OPEC+ on Russia's side

by editors of Socialismus.de

Dispute over control of the oil market

[This article posted on 10/13/2022 is translated from the German on the Internet, OPEC+ an der Seite Russlands.]

The U.S. government has called the decision by the OPEC+ oil alliance to cut oil production "short-sighted" and a "mistake." President Joe Biden was disappointed by it, the White House said.

At a time when maintaining global energy supplies is of paramount importance, this decision will have a particularly negative impact on low- and middle-income countries, it said. The decision is also likely to have a negative impact on U.S. consumers, who will face higher gasoline prices. Such a constriction of mass purchasing power is certainly not electoral support for Democrats in the upcoming midterm congressional elections in November.

The White House spokeswoman outlined the political implications: "It is clear that OPEC+ is aligning itself with Russia with today's announcement." The alliance of oil countries around Saudi Arabia (OPEC+) has decided to massively cut production. Starting in November, two million barrels (159 liters each) less oil will be produced daily. This is the biggest production cut since the spring of 2020, when the Corona pandemic broke out.

OPEC+ includes countries organized in the OPEC oil cartel, as well as allied oil-producing nations such as Russia, which was at the table for the cut decision. The Kremlin welcomed the decision. It said this was aimed at stabilizing the oil market. Obviously, the decline in the price of crude oil in recent weeks. In July, a barrel of North Sea Brent crude still cost more than 107 U.S. dollars; shortly before the OPEC+ decision, the price scratched the 80 U.S. dollar mark.

In the dispute over control of the oil market, the rift between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia is becoming particularly visible. In the midst of the current energy crisis, oil prices then rose sharply - and this from an already relatively high level. The decisive factor here is that the dominant country in OPEC, Saudi Arabia, demonstrated a closing of ranks with Russia. Moscow in particular stands for the plus in the group of petro states; in total, OPEC+ is responsible for about half of the world's supply.

U.S. President Biden told the CNN news channel that the OPEC decision would have consequences for U.S.-Saudi relations. Earlier, White House spokeswoman Jean-Pierre said Biden would put the relationship with Saudi Arabia to the test.

The President responds to demands of Senator*innen from his Democratic Party. These had demanded the far-reaching cessation of military cooperation with Saudi Arabia, since the country supported Russia in the war of aggression against Ukraine with its agreement to the production cut of OPEC+.

The Saudi Arabia oil cartel is driving up the price as the cold season begins in the northern hemisphere. One beneficiary is Russia. Consumers in Europe and America could be the losers.

The OPEC+ decision is a slap in the face for the US and Europe. Before the Vienna meeting, the U.S. government had tried everything to avert "total disaster," according to a report by the CNN news network: U.S. government officials implored their counterparts in the Arab Gulf states to forgo the planned cuts, according to the report. But the American appeals went unheard.

The Gulf states are also continuing their cooperation with Russia in OPEC+ regardless of the Ukraine war. Once again, the Western claim of the Kremlin's global exclusion has failed the practical test. Earlier, the EU announced it would halt its oil imports from Russia in December, or impose sanctions.

Lid on Russian oil

The G-7 countries had previously agreed on a price cap against Russian oil products. Western countries will ban imports of Russian crude oil from Dec. 5 and those of Russian petroleum products entering the Union by sea from Feb. 5. Pipeline crude oil will continue to be allowed.

In addition, companies in the EU will be prohibited from offering insurance and other services for oil transportation. Because the EU, along with the UK, is currently dominant in this area, this could also have an impact on global oil trade: Global supply could decline as a result and the price of oil could continue to soar.

The eighth sanctions package launched by the EU states is intended to hit the Russian oil sector in particular. Among other things, the countries agreed on a price cap for Russian oil, so that the revenues of the important industry would fall - and the financing of the Ukraine conflict would be hindered. Russia will have to sell its oil for a much lower price in the future than it currently does, it is assumed.

Exports are currently hovering around three million barrels per day, which is lower than in the pre-pandemic period. Russian sales to Europe have actually fallen sharply. This has been partially offset by exports to Asia. While China is the largest buyer of Russian oil, with import volumes not changing too much in recent months, the emergence of India as a new major buyer is apparent. The market has already anticipated a kind of price cap: Russian crude is already trading at a discount, currently around per barrel.

But Putin has so far remained unimpressed by the sanctions. Doing without Russian oil and gas would harm the people of Europe much more than the Russian Federation, the president says again and again. It would be "impossible" to isolate his country internationally, Putin said in September at an economic forum in Vladivostok. The Russian economy can handle the situation, he said. "No matter how much some want to isolate Russia, it is impossible to do so." At least with regard to the OPEC oil cartel, the West has a defeat to deal with.