Today is July 21, tomorrow is July 22, it seems like a bland day, but do you know that July 22 is a very important day in the eyes of many Germans, and they even call this day a possible German "Day of Destruction".
Many people say that from this day on, Germany may encounter an unprecedented energy crisis. On July 11 this year, Russia announced that the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline began annual maintenance as scheduled, so Russia's gas supply to Germany and other European countries will be suspended for 10 days, which is the first overhaul of the pipeline after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
If it is really repaired for 10 days as the Russian side said, from July 11 to July 21, and july 22 to start restoring gas supply, then it is fine, and many Germans can breathe a sigh of relief. But many Germans today have a concern about whether it is possible for Russia to simply stop the supply of Nord Stream One in the name of maintenance, if so it will be absolutely a disaster for the German economy, so they call this day a possible German "Day of Destruction".
Even many people are worried that even if the gas supply is provided on July 22, it is uncertain which day in the future Russia can still stop the gas supply of Nord Stream One anytime and anywhere in the name of maintenance, then Germany's "Destruction Day" will continue. In fact, this matter has long been a sign, more than 4 months of Russian-Ukrainian war has made the Western world increase the intensity of economic sanctions against Russia, and even the Western world continues to say that they want to refuse to buy Russian energy.
However, the United States is very accurate in saying that Europe is really kidnapped by Russian energy, ostensibly saying that I don't buy your energy, but in fact really worrying that Russia will not sell energy to them. Just last month, the Russian side reduced nord Stream One's share of gas supply to Germany, why? The Russian side said that there is an important part of my pipeline that was produced by Siemens of Germany, and now that there is a problem, it will be sent to Canada to repair, but canada will not return it after the machine is repaired.
Canada said that because of the current war between Russia and Ukraine, we want to sanction you, and I can't give this core component of this high-tech product to Russia, so Russia said I can't get that machine, I can't supply you with gas on a large scale, so Russia's natural gas supply to Germany through Nord Stream One has been reduced by 40%.
This reduction can make Germany very panicked, not only can not buy enough gas now, but more importantly, the autumn and winter season will soon arrive, the amount of gas needed at that time is even greater, and Russia's move is equivalent to telling the world that they can stop the supply of Nord Stream One at any time and anywhere for various reasons, which makes Germany very uncomfortable.
In recent days, under the strong mediation of Germany, Canada has finally agreed to say that we have a special agent, that this machine is still given to the German company, that Germany has given this machine to Russia, that I cannot give it, that this bad thing cannot be done by me, that I can only say that I have returned this machine to Germany, that I have not given it to Russia, that you Germany are willing to give it.
Even so, Canada's approach has been strongly condemned by Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, saying that you are an act of capital enemy, you are helping Russia to sell gas to make money to fight Ukraine, but what if you do not do this, are you watching the Germans not buy enough natural gas? A 40% reduction in the supply of Nord Stream One has made Germany a great enemy, and after 10 days of maintenance, can Russia supply gas as promised?
According to some Germans, if Russia cannot supply gas normally, then Germany will face the biggest crisis in history, years of prosperity will be burned, and the German economy minister has also asserted that if Russia cuts the supply of natural gas, then Germany will face a catastrophic winter, a severe test they have not experienced for a long time.
At the same time, many other Germans are expecting massive bankruptcies, inflation and energy rationing to send shockwaves to the German economy again and again, and some say that if Russia cuts off gas supplies, Germany could lose as many as 5.6 million jobs.
To know how many people Germany has in total, in fact, in the past few months, the economy of Germany and the whole of Europe has been very bad, Germany in May this year broke the unprecedented 1 billion euros of trade deficit, to know that before 2021 for 4 consecutive years Germany is the world's strongest surplus country, a year Germany's trade surplus of more than 200 billion euros, but why in May this year there will be a deficit?
The reason is very simple, on the one hand, Germany has increased its imports of energy, everyone knows that the Russo-Ukrainian war will lead to extreme instability in the global energy supply, and Germany's winter is coming soon, so while it is still possible to buy Russian energy, Germany is buying wildly, and it does not care that energy prices are soaring.
On the other hand, the threat of lack of gas and the threat of lack of energy make many German enterprises unable to produce normally, imports have increased greatly and exports have been greatly reduced, making Germany have a trade deficit that has not been seen for more than 30 years, and the euro is even worse, just this month the euro has reached 1-1 against the US dollar.
Of course, Americans are happy, a large number of American tourists in Europe crazy consumption is equivalent to a 90% discount, but many people pessimistically predict that the euro will not only not rise back in the future, but even fall to 1 euro can only be exchanged for 0.9 US dollars.
However, all this is simply not worth mentioning compared to the possible future energy crisis, today the European Union has made six consecutive rounds of economic sanctions against Russia, and will soon carry out the seventh round, many European countries have made various plans, do not buy Russian coal, do not buy Russian oil, do not buy Russian gas, as if as long as they do not buy, Russia's economy will collapse immediately.
However, as we have said in the past, Russia has hard currency in its hands, people have oil and gas, grain and gold, Russia has a huge seller's market, not sold to Western Europe can be sold to Asia, Africa and Latin America, especially today's Western world sanctions against Russia have long been exhausted.
Two days ago, the G7 summit had a hard time holding out two new sanctions plan, one called the price cut to tell Russia to sell oil in the future, but it must be reduced until we are satisfied. The other is called blockade, saying that Russia can make more than 10 billion euros a year selling gold, and now they want to ban Russia's gold exports, but the problem is that everyone knows that these two sanctions are completely weak and impossible to achieve after a little thought.
You have made a plan not to buy other people's oil, how can you ask others to reduce prices, why should Russia reduce prices for you, people sell to other countries, friendly countries can sell at a discount, and sell to these unfriendly countries, of course, according to the market price.
And the export blockade of gold is even more fantastic, do not go through the London exchange is Not Russian gold out of the no one wants, gold is harder than the dollar hard currency, so the Western world sanctions are now completely in the form.
It is true that we see that Russia is not nervous at all under the sanctions of the Western world, on the contrary, Russia seems to be very happy, because the more you sanction, the more you cause instability in the world's energy supply, the more you cause turmoil in the energy market, the more you cause a surge in energy prices, then of course Russia has made a lot of money.
The more you sanction me, the higher the price, and then the more money I make, is there such a sanction in the world? On the other hand, the more the Western world sanctions Germany, the more nervous it is, and Ukraine clamors that Germany you better not buy Russian oil and gas at all, but do you see that Germany is rushing to buy with others.
When Russia reduced supply, Germany panicked and had to coordinate with Canada, and when Russia shut down for maintenance, the Germans even worried that July 22 would become Germany's "Day of Destruction". In fact, it is not impossible for someone to say that after July 22, Russia completely stopped Nord Stream One for various reasons.
And Russia is left behind, Russia can fully negotiate with Germany and say that you don't want to sell gas to you, I also want to make this money, but Nord Stream One was built for many years in disrepair, and now due to technical reasons, I am also sorry that it cannot be opened to you for technical reasons.
And Russia can give a solution, what plan? Nord Stream 2. Everyone remembers that before the retirement of former Chancellor Merkel in September last year, he made a decree to build Nord Stream II as soon as possible, demanding that the United States should no longer interfere, and finally Nord Stream II was really built, and this project costing tens of billions of euros will begin to supply gas as soon as both sides agree, but for reasons known to this day, Nord Stream II has not played a role today.
Moreover, American politicians clamor that they have turned Nord Stream II into a pile of bricks and rubble, and that it is possible to completely abolish Nord Stream No. 1 in the future, which is really a bit of a feeling of no return for Russia.
When you Germany wanted natural gas, so I organized the company to invest in building a pipeline to directly transport natural gas to Germany, and after such a long time encountered countless rounds of sanctions by the United States, it took tens of billions of euros to build this pipeline, and the result was scrapped without use, and now it is just an opportunity.
It is about to be autumn and winter, traditionally in the summer to collect and store to establish a huge reserve to make the autumn and winter have enough energy, last winter Germany and other countries encountered an energy crisis, is not because the summer reserves are not timely enough, is this winter the German government also called on the people to wear more sweaters and take fewer hot baths to resist the cold and lack of electricity?
So for Russia this is an opportunity, technical reasons Nord Stream I suspended gas supply, but we can provide Nord Stream II, the German government previously said that the company that built Nord Stream II provided qualifications that are not qualified enough, so we can't open it, so now can you make it open?
To know that if you can't sell natural gas, Russia is nothing more than to make less money, maybe a lot of money, it can be sold to other countries, but can't buy natural gas, Germany will not only suffer from the people's hunger and freezing, but also more likely the collapse of the entire industrial system.
As German officials say, this would cost millions of jobs, which would cause Germany's exports to fall sharply, so is it possible that the deficit will become the norm? If you don't want to destroy it, then just use Nord Stream Ii, anyway, you have bought so much natural gas from Russia with Nord Stream One, and it is not too much to use Nord Stream Ii.
In fact, from this issue we have completely seen the weakness of Europe, and what war with Russia, on the one hand, do not dare to fight, the Russian-Ukrainian war just began to fight US President Biden said that the United States absolutely can not send troops into Ukraine, because Russia has nuclear weapons, the United States does not want to provoke a third world war.
The real battlefield of the Western world has been defeated, and did not expect the economic battlefield of the Western world is also so bad, just like the Federal Reserve can not control the inflation of the United States after multiple rounds of interest rate hikes, today's European world is helpless to sanction Russia, because in the final analysis, European countries rely on Russia for energy, and Russia does not rely on Europe at all.
Therefore, European countries are still clamoring today about refusing to buy Russian oil, refusing to buy Russian gas, hoping to use such a move to make Russia unable to make money, so that Russia will automatically collapse, and then continue like this, the real defeat is the whole of Europe. The longer it drags on, the more bloodstorms Europe will be, and if Russia cuts off the supply of gas at any time and anywhere, then according to the Germans, they will usher in The German "Day of Destruction".