Force Majeure: Push Coming To Shove

What were the Neocons and Globalists thinking about when they decided to take on Russia? There are more things in heaven and earth, George and Klaus and Victoria, than are dreamt of in your ideologies. Reality has its own rules that pay no respect to fancy ideological constructs. The US stole $300 billion in Russian assets—now who will pay the energy bills? $300 billion won’t do that trick, and burning the money won’t generate the needed heat. Russia is calling the bluff—and raising:

Russia's Gazprom tells European buyers gas supply halt beyond its control

LONDON (Reuters) -Russia's Gazprom has told customers in Europe it cannot guarantee gas supplies because of "extraordinary" circumstances, according to a letter seen by Reuters, upping the ante in an economic tit-for-tat with the West over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian state gas monopoly said in a letter dated July 14 that it was retroactively declaring force majeure on supplies from June 14. The news comes as Nord Stream 1, the key pipeline delivering Russian gas to Germany and beyond, is undergoing 10 days of annual maintenance scheduled to conclude on Thursday.

The letter added to fears in Europe that Moscow may not restart the pipeline at the end of the maintenance period in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine, heightening an energy crisis that risks tipping the region into recession.

Known as an "act of God" clause, force majeure is standard in business contracts and defines extreme circumstances that release a party from their legal obligations. The declaration does not necessarily mean that Gazprom will stop deliveries, rather that it should not be held responsible if it fails to meet contract terms.

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Russian gas supplies have been declining via major routes for some months, including via Ukraine and Belarus as well as through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline under the Baltic Sea.

The Europeans are putting up a brave front. The problem is, winter is not many months off. Further, just has European countries were trying to save on energy usage, the heat wave that’s hammering much of Europe (104 in London) is eating into those reserves:

The European Union, which has imposed sanctions on Moscow, aims to stop using Russian fossil fuels by 2027 but wants supplies to continue for now as it develops alternative sources.

Let’s see. 2027 is five years off. How do you do without energy for five years? What was the plan for that?

I highly recommend the video below. Alex Mercouris gets into some of the issues we discussed this morning, such as the rising tensions between Poland and Germany. Unity in the West? Not so much. As the US seeks new ways to provoke Russia into a military overreaction, Russia is showing that it can play the sanctions war, too.