Europe loser of US-Russia energy war

Pars Today- The security agencies of 6 European countries have recently met with the directors of energy sector in Norway, in which they claimed that Russia is a threat against the vital industrial infrastructures of this Scandinavian country.

The security services of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and Island held a behind-closed-doors session with the directors of Norwegian energy sector. According to Pars Today, this session indicates Norway's significance in securing the energy of Europe. Norway, with common borders with Russia, has turned into the greatest maintainer of natural gas for a part of Europe.

Zellen, Deputy Chairman of the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, said to the Reuters in this session, "We are witness to a development which has made involved not only Germany or Norway but all of us."

Without pointing to the US policies and expansion of NATO to the east of Europe, he added, "The threat created by countries like Russia includes not only spying operations, but also the possibility of sabotage in some domains."

Some of the Western media claimed that, in April, two Russian-German nationals were arrested in Germany who were suspects of launching sabotage including attack on the US military facilities. German officials claimed that these measures had been aimed at undermining military support for Ukraine.

Yet, Russia has rejected any involvement of Moscow in planning such a move. This is while, the Norwegian intelligence agencies have emphasized on what they described as the "Russian likely threat of launching sabotage attack". The issue of Europe's need to the Russian energy source has been a major challenge for the decisions of this continent.

Although after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine in February 2022, the EU stopped the imports of the Russian gas, exceptions were enforced about Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, as these three countries are in special way dependent on energy delivery from Russia. The European oil, which crosses with the Drozhba pipeline through Ukraine, is also delivered to these countries.

The European sanctions against Russia have caused a lot of risks for the Hungarian and Slovakian economies. Hungary has enjoyed close relations with Russia for long years. This country secures 2 thirds of its oil from Russia.

Péter Szijjartó, the Hungarian Foreign Minister, said in this regard, "The European Union decision, to refuse to mediate in the conflict of stopping Russian oil supply via Ukraine, indicates that the EU is behind this crisis."

Szijjartó added, "The European Commission's conduct implies that they are not intent to help secure the energy of Hungary and Slovakia and, as it is evident, this order has been sent from Brussels to Kiev in a bid to create problems and challenges in securing the energy of Hungary and Slovakia."

Of course, one of the challenges of the energy industry between Russia and the EU was the sabotage and blast of Nord Stream gas pipeline. The multi-billion dollar pipelines of Nord Stream 1 and 2, which transfer the Russian gas to Europe through the Baltic seabed, was damaged in September 2022 a few months after the start of the war.

No group or country has accepted the responsibility for these blasts, yet. Russia has said several times that this attack was launched by the US and Britain.

Recently, after the escape of the main suspect of the sabotage and explosion of Nord Stream pipeline in Poland, the Russian Rianovosti news agency informed of Moscow's complaint from Berlin.

Tyapkin, Director of the Third European Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, said, "We have raised this issue that Germany and other harmed countries should fulfill their commitments under the UN anti-terror convention."

Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, in an interview with the Russian media (Izviesta), said that Germany must answer all questions in this connection.

However, the issue that cannot be ignored is the US role in the European energy developments. In fact, the US has been the exporter rather than the importer of energy since 2022. After the Russian special operation in Ukraine, the US has swiftly managed to make Europe dependent on itself. The American gas cooperation capacity with Europe was created after this development. Of course, the European countries had no other choice than obeying the policies of Washington with regards to Ukraine.

Indeed, the current conflict in Ukraine, in a sense, is the energy war between US and Russia which is going on in the European soil. This is while, the United States, due to enjoying oil and gas resources, not only is not harmed in this war, but also it gains exorbitantly from the soaring prices of oil and gas exports.

Russia, however, has managed to compensate much of the loss caused by the West through finding new customers in Asia and increasing gas exports to countries such as China. Moreover, the increase of the global oil and gas prices has increased the Russian revenues, too.

Thus, it can be said that Europe is the main loser of the US-Russia conflict.

Key phrases: Ukraine war, Russia and US, oil and gas industry, Russia and Norway

RM/UR