Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "Nord Stream 2: Was It Merkel's Biggest Mistake? - TLDR News" video.

  1. In theory, Russia could stop gas to the EU but in practices, it's never likely to do unless all out war broke out. Truth is, Russia would stand to lose a fortune if they did that whiles at the same time making themselves an unreliable partner around the world, that would impact Russia in many ways. As for the EU, they would likely source gas from the world market which in the short term would push up the price for the EU and everyone else but it would also isolate Russia, it would also very likely speed up the EU green movement. It's why Russia only plays these games for a very short time and likely knows they can't go full in on their threats as it's themselves they would hurt the most in the long run, after all, think about if, if Russia did that to any modern economy on gas, they likely can do it to anyone, even friends around the world and not just on gas but even oil and other natural resources, basically, Russia would lose a lot of trust and custom from around the world and why it's not really a threat but a power play move to try and spook the EU but ends up meaning nothing overall. The irony is that Russia playing these games is likely moving the EU countries to alternative energy sources much sooner then it would be if Russia was more reliable, Russia could end up losing tens of billions over a decade or two because of their political games, after all, you never threaten the one that's buying your goods, otherwise they'll cut you out and buy elseware.
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  2.  @Gorilder  Russia always does this, especially in winter and have been doing it for the last 15 years, it's nothing new and Europeans expect it now, hence the much greater storage for it. Truth is, Russia can't afford to do it for too long as it's them who would lose out the most and the Europeans would look for alternative sources but in the end, Russia is shooting it's self in the foot because the games they keep playing is making them unreliable, that will push the EU countries to look for alternatives regardless of what Russia does and could speed up the process by around 10 years, in other words, Russia playing games could cost that billions.
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