Russia's Gas and Oil Pipelines

Each country is a "prisoner of its own geography," and that geography dictates what kind of resources it has. Whatever resources countries have, they are the most powerful weapons.

Russia's most powerful weapons right now are gas and oil, with nuclear missiles coming in second.

Why are gas and oil powerful weapons?

Because 25 percent of Europe's gas and oil supplies come from Russia. Latvia, Slovakia, Finland, and Estonia are 100 percent dependent on Russian gas; the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Lithuania are 80 percent dependent; Greece, Austria, and Hungary 60 percent. Half of Germany's gas supply comes from Russia.

Major pipelines run east to west out of Russia, some oil, some gas.

Via the Baltic Sea in the North there is the Nord Stream route (which the Ukrainians blew up this year) which connects with Germany.

Below that, cutting through Belarus, is the Yamal pipeline which connects to Poland and Germany.

In the South is the Blue Stream which takes gas to Turkey via the Black Sea.

There was a planned South Stream to go into Hungary, Austria, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Italy but it was scuttled because EU countries put pressure on these countries and Bulgaria pulled the plug by saying that the pipelines could not come across its territory.

Putin reached out to Turkey with a new proposal, the Turk Stream. The Turk Stream proposal would have circumvented Ukraine.

To prevent Kremlin from turning the gas off, Americans strategized and came up with a plan to liquefy natural gas (the gas that Americans will be banned from using in gas stoves and heating) and ship it to European coastlines where the LNG (liquefied natural gas) will be turned back into gas.

Europe has to build more LNG terminals; Poland and Lithuania are already building terminals and the Czech Republic is building pipelines connecting to those terminals.

The problem is that piped gas is cheaper than LNG gas.

Russia is responding by planning pipelines going southeast to China in hopes of selling gas to them.

In the case of oil, for each one dollar drop in the price of crude per barrel, Russia loses $2 billion in revenue and its economy can take a hit.

Another terrible issue Russia faces is demographics, population decline. Losing men in battle does not help the situation.

The average life expectancy for a Russian male is 65 and, excluding Crimea, there are now 144 million Russians even though its territory is so vast, stretching over 11 time zones. Of the 193 U.N. member states, Russia is in the bottom half in terms of average life span.

Most western states are experiencing a population decline as well.

(data from Prisoner of Geography by Tim Marshall, 2015)

Why is Gas so High?

For those Americans who are foolishly claiming that the skyrocketing price of oil is Putin's fault, here is some news for you - it is entirely the Biden administration's fault. When he took office, gasoline was $1.69 a gallon in my town, it is now $4.55 per gallon while Diesel is $5.55 per gallon. We need plenty of affordable gasoline and Diesel to run our complex and very large economy.

He closed oil leases, fracking, offshore drilling, and the XL pipeline which was delivering gas from Canada. He did this on day one and the price of gas started to escalate immediately. Crude oil is being transported by rail (powered with electricity created with Diesel and coal) instead of the much cheaper pipelines which crisscross our country from Alberta, Canada and other places.

It was Biden's plan all along to destroy the fossil fuel industry in order to replace it with the pie-in-the-sky green energy delivered by expensive, inadequate, and insufficient solar and wind power.

The U.S. became overnight an oil importer again instead of an oil exporter as it had been under the Trump administration.

OPEC took advantage of this situation of a weak and partisan president and refused to increase production, thus further escalating the price of crude oil per barrel.

Speculators entered the fray and affected the futures price as well on the Chicago Board of Trade. This often happens when the political climate is poor, people fear their incompetent government, and the future looks bleak.

The fact that Democrats and some Republicans have voted to print dollars without any backing of goods and services, creating high inflation, highest in forty years, and then spending trillions of dollars we don't have, like drunken sailors, has devalued our U.S. dollar which is the currency in which crude oil is priced and quoted around the globe.

Supply and demand for crude oil, gas, and Diesel are also out of whack due to the economic effects of the lockdowns and other labor and economic decisions made by U.S. corrupt politicians, further exacerbating the price increases.

One caller to the WMAL station in Washington, D.C. area, stated on Friday that she has 7 children and must fill up the van with gasoline every four days. Each time it cost $100. This translates into $750 a month just for gasoline. Middle class Americans must decide whether they eat, drive their cars, or pay their mortgages/rent.

This terrible economy is entirely Biden's fault and the fault of those who voted for him and thus for the destruction of our economy.

Your unwise vote is putting most of the middle class in a poor house filled with shortages and high inflation. The economic and energy situations are quite dire.