This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. European gas prices went above 30 percent on Tuesday after continued low supplies from Russia sparked concerns of an energy crisis. The Russian President had diverted gas flow to the East through the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which usually brings gas to the West, marking the fifteenth day in a row. There were reports of around 100,000 Russian troops piling up on the Russia-Ukraine border, which has caused tension with the West.
The US is willing to intervene and responds to Russia's potential military aggression. The White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the United States and its allies and partners would respond decisively if Russia invades Ukraine. But Dr Thomas O Donnell, a geopolitical analyst from the Hertie School of Governance, claimed that Russia's control over global gas supplies might prevent the US from protecting Ukraine. He said that because of the West's dependence on Russia for its gas supplies, Putin has a geostrategic advantage and can get what he wants without caving to pressures from the EU and the US.
O Donnell told Express.co. If Putin wanted to help Europe with alleviating its dangerously low levels of gas storage - which could well run dry if the winter is cold and the wind does not blow enough for the windmills, he would take the spot market contracts being offered and flood gas across the Yamal-Europe pipeline through Belarus-Poland into Germany and the EU and or via the huge unused pipelines that cross Ukraine. These systems are virtually unavoidable by Moscow at present an offer of at least three to four times the volume of Nord Stream 2. Nord Stream 2 is a gas pipe that will carry gas from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine and Poland. It has been hit with delays and Mr Putin has been accused of deliberately restricting Europe s gas supplies to speed up its certification. READ MORE: Putin's spy rocket is about to crash back to Earth this week.
Dr O Donnell claimed that Russia reluctance to use other gas routes to boost supplies to Europe is giving the Russian President extra control, which is why he claims it is Russia's reluctance to use other gas routes. He said that Putin's refusal to use these long-established traditional routes is evidence that he is using gas as a geostrategic level in the midst of a severe EU-British gas shortage. He is trying to blackmail Europe and America into agreeing to abandon Ukraine, despite agreeing that it will not be allowed to join the EU and especially not to join NATO in exchange for gas in its hour of need.