Blowing holes in Seymour Hersh’s pipe dream

Skripal poisoning denial is so good man, I've never heard that one before. Especially after one of the guys accused turned out to be a Hero of Russian Federation under a fake name. Found a ria news article with almost exact same wording you used but in russian. Anyway I guess you would say Navalny, Litvinenko were fakes as well. 3% of russians believe in skripal thing, you are preaching to the choir, the real skeptics in russia are the ones saying it is real.

"same skepticism towards CIA/US government" Yeah americans do that all the time and definitely do it the most, but that is also because they live there. maybe its time to take a look in the mirror and start focusing on what your country is doing Stanislav Petrov.

> the issue here is that invading Ukraine doesn't really make any sense from the Russian perspective.

It makes perfect sense for Russia to invade, what are you talking about? In one sense its the death throws of a dying nation, in the other its logical national protection of a vital resource - energy. A few questions for you:

- Did you know in 2012 lots of oil and gas was found under Crimea and Donbas? And that US company Shell was preparing to extract it?

- Did you know about the vicious fighting at Stalingrad in WW2 and why the fighting was so vicious?

- Have you heard of "the Volgograd Gap"?

- Have you heard of South Ossetia (and the one next to it, starts with a) and why there was a proxy conflict with the USA in the 2000's there?

The Volgograd gap is the bit of land between Ukraine and the Caspian Sea. All of Moscows energy flows through there. The city used to be called Stalingrad.

It also allows Russia access to its separatist regions in its neighbour Georgia. Those separatist regions put Russia within striking distance of a) the major Georgian port and b) the Georgian capital Tblisi. Guess who tried to join NATO in the 2000s? Georgia.

Zelenskyys second in command is a great geopolitican and he knew this invasion was coming because he knew it was inevitable. There is multiple interviews with him saying as much, and also that they pooh-pooh'd the idea of a Russian invasion to buy time. He knew part of Russias plan was to scare the Ukrainian populace eastward, frustrating the Ukrainians armies effort to reach the front, hence they had to keep even their citizens in the dark to have a fighting chance.

There are other reasons that make this make sense, such as the fact that Russia is facing a demographic crisis thanks to communism gutting it, the Minsk accords being broken, and some other stuff.

I recommend you watch docos and info pieces from the following people to avoid making such silly remarks again:

- RealLifeLore

- Whatifalthist

- CaspianReport

- Good Times Bad Times

- S2 Underground

None of this makes what Russia did and is doing OK by any means, but it explains why they did it.

And Perun

> So basically like building the pipe part anew.

No, the cost of the Northstream 2 alone was roughly $11 billion. Much of the pipeline could be used, the explosion was only in a small region.

> Technically there was. It was pressurized. Meaning it was full of gas delivered up to the tap on the German side.

It was filled, but nothing was delivered into Germany. There was also no permission given to do that.

> Dealing with Europe who acts like this is some kind of privilege is a waste, IMO.

Russia has all the responsibility. They attacked the Ukraine. It's their choice. It has nothing to do with a 'privilege'.

> You are being categorical at the expense of being realistic.

Realistically Russia has removed themselves from being someone who we want to trade with for at least a decade. They are not a partner and they are not reliable.

Russia started a war against not only the Ukraine, but also against the rest of Europe and they used the energy dependency as a weapon. Russia was preparing for the war for some time.

The majority of my statement is accurate, from your own link.

1) Mostly wrong by turn of phrase? Please. "Got rid of his nukes" or "Got rid of his nuclear program that was 3 - 7 years from successfully building a nuclear weapon."

"Gaddafi increasingly sought to normalize relations with the United States, initially focusing on the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Libya."

2) Eventually Gaddafi grew disillusioned with the things that the West offered Libya.[6] He considered it too small of a reward for Libya for giving up its nuclear weapons program.[6] Gaddafi was also dissatisfied at the United States' slowness in normalizing relations with Libya and in pressuring Israel to denuclearize.[6] According to Gaddafi's son Saif, this was one of the main reasons why Gaddafi temporarily suspended shipping Libya's enriched uranium abroad in 2009 like he promised he would in 2003.[6] Gaddafi wanted to use the remains of his nuclear weapons program to gain more leverage.[6]

3)NATO's 2011 intervention in Libya (which led to Gaddafi's overthrow and killing at the hands of anti-Gaddafi forces) would make Iran, North Korea, and possibly other countries more reluctant to give up their nuclear programs and/or nuclear weapons due to the risk of being weakened and/or double-crossed as a result.[6][15].

The "civil war" was fomented by clandestine CIA action providing arms to Libyan opposition as reported by the Washngton Post.

"During the early phases of the Libyan air strike offensive, paramilitary operatives assisted in the recovery of a U.S. Air Force pilot who had crashed due to mechanical problems.[8] There was also speculation in The Washington Post that President Obama issued a covert action finding in March 2011 that authorized the CIA to carry out a clandestine effort to provide arms and support to the Libyan opposition.[9]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Libya