{"id":11821,"date":"2019-05-14T12:13:10","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T19:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=11821"},"modified":"2019-05-14T12:13:19","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T19:13:19","slug":"is-russia-preparing-a-gas-nuclear-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/is-russia-preparing-a-gas-nuclear-option\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Russia Preparing A Gas Nuclear Option?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory published\u00a0by\u00a0Forbes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vladimir Putin is noted for taking surprise action, which confronts his victims with a fait accompli. They must then either accept the new unfavorable status quo or react in a way that they would consider too risky. Putin has employed this playbook in Georgia, Crimea, East Ukraine, Syria, on Ukrainian naval vessels in the Black Sea and to prop up the Maduro regime in Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putin\u2019s potential targets should put themselves inside Putin\u2019s head to anticipate his next hostile move in order to avoid again being caught off guard with few good options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putin loves the unexpected; so beware. On paper, this would be the worst time for Russia to act up in its European gas market. Russia\u2019s Gazprom just narrowly saved its key project \u2013 the undersea Nord Stream 2 pipeline directly to Germany \u2013 despite almost universal opposition in Europe. Gazprom faces new unfavorable (unacceptable) regulations: On April 5, 2019, The European Parliament and European Commission adopted a new gas directive that requires Gazprom to unbundle delivery from production. Moreover, Germany\u2019s Angela Merkel has promised Ukraine that, Nord Stream 2 or not, Russian gas will continue to flow through Ukraine. That\u2019s not all: With the threat of competition from American LNG, Russia would strive to emphasize the reliability of its deliveries to its massive European market. Finally, LNG competition would surely constrain Putin from taking hostile action that jeopardizes Russia\u2019s European gas revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Please read this piece by my colleague Paul Roderick Gregory published\u00a0by\u00a0Forbes Vladimir Putin is noted for taking surprise action, which confronts his victims with a fait accompli. They must then either accept the new unfavorable status quo or react in a way that they would consider too risky. Putin has employed this playbook in Georgia, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[375,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-34F","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6470,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/putin-saruman-come-alive\/","url_meta":{"origin":11821,"position":0},"title":"Putin — Saruman Come Alive","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/\u00a0NRO's The Corner \u201cIt was a delight to hear the voice speaking, all that it said seemed wise and reasonable, and desire woke in them by swift agreement to seem wise themselves.\u201d \u2014 J. 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It takes in floods of refugees and scolds those who do not. 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Putin addressed two audiences \u2014 the Russian people and his external enemies,\u00a0namely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Putin"","block_context":{"text":"Putin","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/putin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9862,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-three-headed-hydra-of-the-middle-east\/","url_meta":{"origin":11821,"position":3},"title":"The Three-Headed Hydra of the Middle East","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 16, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review Trump has inherited a matrix of problems that primarily stem from Iran, Russia, and ISIS. 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