A global recession is on the horizon - please read OP for mod warning

So you believe the us and or nato were responsible for the nord stream sabotage? Any evidence for that?

Who knows maybe interest has been shown in buying it. There are no sanctions, Russian gas is flowing everyday through 3 other pipelines and loads of LNG is being bought. If the price was right why not ?

How could Ireland buy gas from Russia even if it wanted to ?

gdp predictions over the last 3/4 years have been overly confident and this year they were no where near the predictions. I cant see 3% next year Ireland is too open to the likes of the UK which will see at least a 18 month recession

This is going off topic slightly but Russia is at war with Europe, economically anyway,and the sooner people realise this the better,they revell in the idea of Europe freezing, I grew up in a house with one fire place downstairs,I survived,in fact I don't even remember any particular cold nights where I didn't think I was gonna make it🙄

It is advisible to ignore anything Russia says and watch what they do.

I see benefits to Putin/Russia in blowing up the pipelines (regardless of whether responsiblility is ever proven or disproven). I also see little benefit & some very big downsides for US or UK govt. if it were ever proven they were responsible. That never seems to get mentioned by people very fond of this idea. The truth will probably out eventually, even if it may take some time.

By the time this sabotage was done, there was no hope left of Europeans crawling to Putin for gas for downgrading their support to Ukraine and reducing sanctions as maybe Russia expected (certainly was what their "useful idiots" or bots on here confidently told us would happen for many months). Russia was finished anyway as the EUs man gas supplier while Putin remains in power, and Russia continues its war to annex or destroy Ukraine.

Russia won't admit to action like this until the evidence that they did it becomes quite overwhelming - at that point they will kind of smirkingly/knowingly allow it was them after all e.g. with more minor officials or propagandists "joking" about it like (afair) Russia do now about the Salisbury poisonings.

It's right out of the Kremlin playbook. If they hit the pipe, undetected, it shows they can damage critical energy infrastructure almost anywhere. It sends a powerful message. Remember Putin doesn't just see the conflict with Ukraine, but he sees himself at war with Europe (and by further proxy the West). He wants Europeans to suffer, Ukrainian refugees to put a strain on European economies, European countries to have an energy crisis, to divide us, interfere in elections, etc. It's not just from this war, it's been their operational doctrine for a long time now, all under Putin.

He has people openly murdered with Russian nerve gas to make no mistake who did it. He has countless Russian businessmen and oligarch's fall out of windows and die in droves to heart attacks. He's deliberately targeting the energy infrastructure in Ukraine in winter to freeze them out. He takes revenge on Ukrainian civilians when his military suffers a setback. It's well within his capacity to have a pipeline blown to rattle Europe.

The Germans are getting more self sufficient by the day, there are still issues, but another year should make a big difference to cutting the energy reliance on Russia, which in itself should be positive for the German economy in the long run

Well then, you would be wrong and your powers of consideration and deduction are terrible.

The players in the senior ranks of the Russian administration may or may not be evil, but they are collectively well motivated to protect the very significant nests that they have feathered for themselves. Does that push them to the level of comic book villains? Yes, in fact it does.

Go and do two things.

First, read up on the doctrine of 'moskirovka', an ancient tradition of deliberate deception and surprise tactics in Russia, that goes back to the 14th Century.

Second, read 'Red Notice', by Bill Browder. An excellent memoir of the reality of doing business and dealing with the politics of post-Soviet Russia. Spoiler alert; its about massive, pervasive and absolute corruption and criminality in all dealings.

Then go and have a word with yourself about whatever kool aid you've been drinking.

Appeasement didn't work, the German policy of peace through trade didn't work, he still invaded East Ukraine and annexed Crimea. Then Hitler style chose to launch a multi-pronged mass invasion of a sovereign democratic country triggering an energy crisis and impacting us economically. We've now learnt our (painful) lesson.

One of the few good things to come out of all this will be an eventual situation where we aren't energy reliant on a dictator hellbent on destroying/invading us. Which is a much more stable platform for future recessions.