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Originally Posted by DrTiTus
Are we all in agreement that the US blew up the pipeline?
Or is there still speculation that Putin did it himself, and is now working to repair it himself, just for something to do?
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That's a pretty extreme simplification of the situation, there are multiple pro's and multiple con's for multiple countries to have targeted the pipeline. Saying "well russia's fixing it, so why would they destroy it," is to ignore the very fact that Putin is singlehandedly dismantling decades of economic growth in the pursuit of a reunified russia.
Putin could easily be playing both the EU and his own population by executing and denying this act. EU populations may lose the will to support their governments support of Ukraine over a long cold winter with exorbitant energy prices, while Russian civilians will lose income and Putin can blame their suffering on EU, galvanising some of the population that may be leaning towards the "is this worth it?" camp.
England (or other EU countries) could benefit politically by blaming Putin and not having to justify harsh energy prices on a political decision, but rather on an infrastructural deficit caused by Russia.
US would be the least to suffer from this action, however they also have the least reason to execute it in the first place as the sanctions are in place and are only getting stronger. It could be a long play, based on the assumption that some or all of europe MIGHT relinquish sanctions if energy/gas prices get too high. BUT that's a pretty big risk to take. If caught they risk alienating most of the EU and risk destabilising NATO who is stronger (cohesively) than they have been in a very long time.