As you may know, the wars of the last century took place mainly because of energy resources, which the industry and economy of the developing world began to need particularly strongly. This is especially evident in the events of World War II, which not only demonstrated the struggle for spheres of influence in general, but the energy component was quite visible even then. All subsequent regional and local wars, the armed interventions of the United States and its Western allies in Iraq, Libya, and Syria, and the creation of conflict situations by the West in many parts of the world have already clearly demonstrated that they were in line with the division of energetic spheres of influence. The West’s preparation of an anti-Russian coalition and initiation of an armed conflict with Ukraine were also aimed at intensifying the smoldering Third energy redistribution in the world, which accelerated after Moscow began its special operation to denazify the Kyiv regime in February this year.
The redistribution of the EU gas market initiated by Washington in 2021 to the exclusion of Russian pipeline gas, which is cheap and benefits all Europeans, led to an uncontrolled rise in inflation in Europe late last year. After the change of leadership in Germany, the United States began to actively involve this country in this gas war, as well as many European officials controlled by Washington, who then expressed the instructions they received from the United States that Europe must allegedly completely abandon the energy resources supplied by Moscow. As a result, the price of gas rose to over $1,000 per 1,000 cubic meters, and inflation began to gallop, followed by the price of food, housing, and municipal services in the United States and Europe.
At the same time, it should be noted that Germany did not intend to support the US gas war in the beginning. The construction of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines promised Germany a privileged position not only in the EU energy market but also in pushing its economic expansion through the possession of cheap gas, so important for the maintenance and development of the German economy.
Still, by maintaining and unleashing the energy crisis in Europe and around the world, Germany pursued its own goals. In order to strengthen its leading position in the EU and based on the fact that in any crisis four stable sources of energy are of paramount importance: Coal, Nuclear, Oil, and Gas, Berlin has been actively involved in the fight against coal and nuclear power. Firstly, to force those other EU countries to import its gas, which it bought from Russia at the cheapest price in Europe, hoping that with the support of Moscow, Germany will become the main European gas hub and thus dictate its policy to the states of Europe. From here, the Scholz cabinet decided to kill Polish coal, knowing full well that thanks to coal, of which Poland has plenty, Warsaw would have cheap energy and thus a better-developed economy to compete with Germany’s. This is why Berlin turned into the most vocal proponent of the ETS tax, the European greenhouse gas emissions trading system, in 2021.
However, frankly, narrow-minded German politicians forgot there are no permanent allies for the United States. Not in politics, not in military interventions, and not in economics. And this is confirmed not only by recent events in Afghanistan or other Middle Eastern countries when Washington abandoned its allies on the battlefield and protected solely its interests and soldiers.
The same happened with the energy crisis, which Washington involved the Scholz cabinet in triggering and then intensified the gas war against Russia, with which Berlin was so keen to cooperate in the energy sector. In the aggravation of the gas war, which directly affected the main interests of Germany, the United States involved not only the Ukrainian special services but also the Scandinavian countries. For it is inexplicable how else terrorist acts against Russian gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea could have been committed in the territorial responsibility zones of the Scandinavian countries. Perhaps the price of Swedish involvement in this terrorist attack was Washington’s promise to “help” Oslo with its findings in order to circumvent Turkey’s opposition to Sweden’s accession to NATO and the need to first meet Ankara’s conditions? And for Turkey to be more accommodating, isn’t this where the failed attempts to carry out another terrorist attack recently, but now in relation to Turkish Stream, lie?
As a result of the West’s provocative policies, almost all parts of the world are now facing an energy crisis, with energy prices reaching record highs, everyone lacking fuel, and power and heating outages becoming more frequent. Even some of the world’s richest countries and US states, such as California in particular, are struggling to maintain the stability of their power systems. The energy crisis that erupted was a shock to people facing such a problem in all major areas of public life: economy, national security, environment, and public health.
Recent events show that energy sources are the most sold commodity in the world and affect everything that people buy and consume. Energy is the most important component for production, so stable prices and supplies play a key role in a country’s economic competitiveness. The sanctions against Russia imposed by the EU and the US in March 2022 collapsed the gas and oil markets, energy prices rose sharply, and in parallel, the cost of fertilizers and food increased. As a result, the risk of a global famine of unprecedented proportions, which will impact three hundred million people, has increased.
Without a stable and affordable source of energy, a country’s government cannot achieve its goals and accomplish any of its major undertakings. Due to the sharp increase in the price of natural gas, coal, and electricity, mass protests have already begun in many countries and will intensify in the coming weeks. Especially in Europe – against the background of the fact that the coming winter can be very severe. Therefore, the population of the countries impacted by the energy crisis will make serious demands on their governments and certain politicians who are responsible for the current problems.
The energy crisis in Europe can be particularly instructive for other countries because no other region has invested so much or made such political efforts to reshape its energy markets under pressure from the United States.
Valery Kulikov, expert politologist, exclusively for the online journal “New Eastern Outlook”.
