US war on Iran | Megathread for Week 12 of 2026
(lemmygrad.ml)
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Also, this must be a golden opportunity for Russia as they could really help out Europe with this
It seems to me like the current European leadership is way too Russophobic to ask the Russians for help. And who says Russia is interested anymore in helping Europe? I wouldn't discount the possibility that, even if Europe comes begging, the Russians will just tell them: that ship has sailed. Their oil and gas flows have been redirected to China, and that's not the kind of thing that can just turn on a dime. They're building serious infrastructure that will lock them in for decades.
"Europeans will stand in defiance to Russia for our sovereignty, no matter the price". -Macron 2027 while old people die off in their hundreds because they can't afford gas
โ (Former) German Foreign Minister, now President of the UN General Assembly
"no matter what my German voters think"
This is how all the EU elites think about the European voters.
"even if it gets really tough for politicians" ๐๐ช๐ฝ
Won't somebody think of the poor politicians?
It'd be odd that Russia would reject an opportunity to gain some leverage over Europe.
I mean, that's the entire reason the US/Ukraine blew up their pipeline in the Baltic.
While the Europeans are definitely Russophobic, there's obviously enough of them who either don't care or are fair weather players. Especially depending on who gets elected next.
I have never understood the argument that Russia somehow has leverage over Europe by providing us with gas. Russia has never once broken or even threatened to break its contracts for political gain. What leverage did Russia have before? Europe was the party that unilaterally chose to terminate the contract and stop receiving Russian gas. The Russians never turned it off even when the Europeans were supplying Ukraine with weapons to kill Russians and commit terrorist attacks inside Russia.
And yes, there are a few leaders in Europe who are more on the pragmatic/opportunistic side, but at the moment the hard-line Russophobes are very dominant. They have gotten their way nearly every time so far. The only exception being the recent rebellion over the theft of Russia's reserves. We will see if the situation becomes desperate enough that more cracks start to show, but so far Europe has shown itself repeatedly to be willing to destroy itself for the sake of its ideological crusade against Russia.
The conversation was predicated on the idea that Europe was going to ask Russia for energy. If they're not then Russia obviously holds no leverage. But if Europe does push to the point that they start asking for Russian gas again, then obviously Russia would be in the position to possibly start making demands again.