Europe’s Self-Destruction Is Now Irreversible

8 September 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

https://theduran.com/power-of-siberia-2-eu-faces-dark-expensive-energy-future/

“EU faces dark, EXPENSIVE energy future”

Transcript

0:00

ALEX CHRISTOFOROU: All right, let's talk about the power of Siberia 2, which was uh

0:06

announced by uh the Gazprom head uh Miller. He uh he was the first one to

0:12

announce that there has been um a legal agreement between Russia and China for

0:18

the uh the pipeline power of Siberia 2, which will go from Russia, transit via

0:24

Mongolia and uh and end in China. The interesting part about the power of Siberia 2, what differentiates it from

0:32

the power of Siberia 1 is that uh that this gas from Russia was supposed to be

0:38

the gas that was going to to power uh the European Union and specifically

0:43

power uh German industry. Yes. Now all of that gas is going to be redirected to uh to China. Mongolia

0:51

becomes the the beneficiary as a transit state. Yet, once upon a time, Ukraine

0:56

was the beneficiary as a transit uh state and uh it's going to most likely

1:03

complete by uh be completed by around 2030 I think Miller said would would be

1:09

the launch and uh at the time of uh Miller's announcement there were a lot of analysts who who were saying that

1:14

this is not real uh this is just a memorandum of understanding, Russia and

1:20

China have been talking about the power of Siberia too for for five 10 years now. Uh Putin Putin talked about it.

1:28

Yeah, Putin talked about it. He even talked about uh the pricing of it. A little bit about the pricing of it

1:34

and um when Putin is is talking about the power of Siberia 2 and the

1:39

agreement that Russia has with China, you can take it to the bank that this is a done deal. Absolutely. Um your your thoughts on the power of uh

1:46

Siberia too, Alexander? ALEXANDER MERCOURIS: Yes, I mean this this is this is this is huge and um it

1:52

is by the way the main big concrete agreement that came out of the various

1:58

meetings in China. I mean there was very interesting meetings at the in Tenzin

Pipeline Route and Strategic Shift

2:04

and in Beijing. There were all kinds of world leaders there. But the big deal the big big deal is this one and it has

2:12

enormous implications. So let's first of all say something about this pipeline because of course there's been a lot of

2:17

discussion about this and a lot of people in the west have been saying for ages that it would not happen that the

2:25

Chinese weren't really interested that it was bogged down with pricing disputes

2:30

and all of those things. And by the way we said on The Duran earlier this year

2:37

that it would be agreed this year. And uh we we if you actually go back uh uh

2:42

we actually talked about it that it would be agreed this year and sure enough and sure enough it has been

2:47

agreed this year. Now the the what has held this up it has nothing to do with

2:53

pricing disputes. I mean I'm not saying that there aren't there weren't ar you know discussions and arguments about

2:59

pricing. But what really held this pipeline up were two two events. Firstly

3:06

the pandemic. I mean, it it was apparently very close to being agreed in

3:11

2019, but then the pandemic happened. That threw everything into confusion.

3:16

Nobody was going to build a massive pipeline or commit to building a massive pipeline whilst that was underway. And

3:23

then the second thing that happened was the start of the special military operation and enormous sanctions. and

3:29

because the Chinese are going to be involved in building this pipeline. Uh up to now pipelines have almost entirely

3:36

been built by Gazprom. But it was always understood that China

3:41

was going to play an actual role in in its, in the construction of this

3:47

pipeline. Anyway, the point was that the Chinese needed to recalibrate some of their industries to

3:54

sanction proof them because they didn't want companies that used western component components to suddenly find

4:01

themselves sanctioned because they were involved in making this. Now that process I suspect has now been

4:07

completed. Um the elements to agree this

4:13

are there and the deal has now been done and those who said this is just a

4:20

memorandum of understanding are completely wrong. The way the Russians

4:25

and the Chinese work is that they only sign memorandums of understanding when

4:32

99.9999% of the rest of the documentation is

4:38

agreed and ready or the big issues are resolved. So as you rightly said if

4:43

Putin and Xi are endorsing this, then you can bank it. There is no doubt this

4:49

thing will be built. It will be built, as you rightly say, using Arctic gas.

4:55

Some of it from fields that were already providing gas to Europe. Some of it from

5:02

Arctic fields which were intended to be developed and to supply gas to Europe

5:11

through the Yamal and Nord Stream pipelines. I mean the whole purpose of

5:16

those pipelines uh the Yamal pipeline which was built, Nord Stream one and

5:21

Nord Stream 2, was to feed into Europe that gas from those new developed fields

5:30

that the Russians were developing in the Arctic. So instead of going to Europe,

5:37

as you absolutely rightly say, it will be going to China and it will not flow to

5:43

Europe again. This is the key thing to understand. If there are if there is

5:48

elections in Germany and a new government is formed which wants to

5:54

restart Nord Stream which of course Merz is making all but impossible

6:00

and they come to Moscow and they say we will we want this gas we want this gas

6:09

to come back to us we are prepared to pay more much more than the Chinese, it

6:16

can't be done because this gas is already now contractually committed to

6:22

go eastwards to China and um I I don't think people in Europe understand this,

6:30

but this is what is going to happen, this is now

6:37

this is now definite, there's no turning back from this. If

6:45

Putin is succeeded by someone else, Putin say leaves the scene in at the end of his

6:53

term, whoever replaces him, this has all been agreed. The pipelines

6:59

are going to be built, it's not going to change. Um, if there's a change of

pandemic, sanctions, China’s role

7:04

is not going to change. Europe has once and for all

7:11

and forever lost Russian pipeline gas.

7:17

And pipeline gas has of course already been going east to China via Power of

7:24

Siberia 1. Power of Siberia 2 is a much bigger pipeline. It'll carry much more

7:31

gas than Power of Siberia 2. Pipeline gas. and we've discussed this many times

7:38

it’s inherently cheaper than LNG.

7:43

The power of Siberia gas supplied to China via

7:48

Power of Siberia 1 is already the cheapest gas by a significant margin

7:55

apparently within China's gas energy mix.

8:02

So, Power of Siberia 2, which is going to start to supply a lot of gas, and

8:08

bear in mind, after Power of Siberia 2, there will probably be Power of Siberia 3 and all of those others. Um,

8:16

what that's going to mean is that the market in China for [the intrinsically] more expensive LNG

8:26

is going to decline and that is going to have consequences

8:31

for the global LNG market because China is the biggest growth market for LNG.

8:38

So, um, I it it's going to mean that China will import less LNG [which also has a far higher carbon footprint than pipelined natural gas does], which could

8:45

feed into [impact] the LNG industry and might result in lower investment there [which would thus help reduce global warming]. And

8:52

it's also, of course, ultimately going to make China less dependent on imports

8:57

of LNG from the United States.

9:02

Yeah. You know, they uh the Europeans, they wanted to to get rid of Russian gas. Who would have thought that Russia

9:10

would get rid of the Europeans? I mean, right. Yeah. They wanted to get rid of the Russian gas. They've been saying this for three,

9:16

four years. We got to cut out the Russian gas. We got to cut out Russian energy. Yeah. Well, in uh in Beijing, Putin just cut

9:24

out uh the Europeans. Correct. Russia and and China. Correct. They said, "You know what? We don't want

9:29

you. You don't want our energy." Yes. We don't want you as a customer. Exactly. That's that's what they did. What do you

9:36

What do you mean when you said that the the Europeans don't understand what's going on? Do you mean the the European

9:41

people, they don't understand that that things are going to get a lot worse, especially in relation to to the cost of

9:47

energy and inflation, or do you mean the European elite have not understood what's going on? Well, obviously the European the

9:54

European public I think are oblivious to much of this because it's never discussed or reported properly. But I

Europe’s Lost Access to Russian Gas

10:01

mean the European elite and I I I mean here including not just the political

10:06

elite but the economic elite as well. I I mean the in Germany in particular

10:12

there's been a long-standing historic belief that you know Russia would sell its the only way that Russia can develop

10:20

economically is by selling its gas and it raw materials and its energy to

10:25

Germany. There's been much talk about how Russia is Germany's economic uh is

10:30

its sorry is its raw materials um resource base Germany's resource base um

10:37

um German industry has been martyring for some time you know you know we've got to

10:45

think about reopening the Nord Stream pipelines there's been even assertions

10:50

by some German politicians that when the peace in Ukraine comes we must work hard

10:56

to reopen the uh pipelines and to get Russian gas again. It's not going to

11:02

happen. I mean, you know, some of the people who are saying these things are

11:07

people, by the way, in Germany whom I actually have some time for. I, you know, I'm sympathetic to them. I I you

11:14

know I but and they they're a lot more realistic than you know the bear box and

11:20

the oers and people like that who said that Europe can dispense forever with Russian energy. Um but the point is that

11:30

to to repeat again the deal the deal has now been done. You cannot you cannot

11:39

supply gas by pipeline which isn't there. Europe can still, if it wants,

11:46

buy LNG from Russia, which Russia produces quite a lot now, but the great

11:52

flows of pipeline gas to Europe are gone forever. And whatever happens

11:59

politically in Europe now, um, that won't change. And I just I don't think

12:04

that people in Germany or Italy, Italy was another massive importer of Russian

12:10

gas, um, have internalized this. I I think it will take them years to I don't

12:16

think they understand the implications of what's happened and um there it is. I

12:22

wanted to say a few further things by the way. First of all, gas pipelines going through uh Mongolia are going to

12:30

transform Mongolia. It's a huge country geographically speaking. It's vast land

12:36

area, but it's very thinly populated and it's it's quite poor. I mean, now

12:41

they're going to get the um, you know, receipts from, you know, the transit fees. I mean, this is going to make a

12:48

huge difference to Mongolia. I mean, it's going to make Mongolia probably a

12:53

very rich place, just just to say, and that's, you know, good for them. They've

12:59

played their cards well, but um um I mean, they they've they've they've done

Cheaper Gas for China, Declining LNG Demand

13:04

it they've done this very well. But the second thing I want to say and it comes back to your point about a customer and

13:10

that the Russians have just cut out the Europeans as a customer.

13:16

What I think many people in Europe just don't don't understand

13:22

is that the closing of the Nord Stream pipelines

13:28

which was of course started by the Germans. I mean Merz not Merz Scholz suspended Nord Stream the

13:35

Nord Stream pipelines in February 2022 closed them down entirely later. Um and

13:42

of course Nord Stream 2 never really properly operated and as we know

13:47

subsequently they were blown up. That is only a culmination

13:55

of from a Russian point of view an enormously difficult and angry and

14:00

relationship with the Europeans because Gazprom in trying to supply Europe

14:06

with gas constantly faced criticism. It faced endless legal harassment. Brussels

14:14

brought anti-competition investigations and legal claims against Gazprom. There were constant attempts to

14:22

force Gazprom to renegotiate its supply contracts. As we know, the Ukrainians

14:30

twice basically stole gas from uh Gazprom's

14:35

pipelines and Gazprom got blamed for allowing the Ukrainians for not allowing

14:41

the Ukrainians to steal that gas and closing off the pipelines. Anyway, uh

14:47

this went on year after year and in article after article appearing in the

14:52

media in the west about, you know, the dependence of you on Europe, political dependence on Russian gas and how Russia

15:00

used gas as a weapon and all of that kind of thing. Now, we've said this in

15:05

many programs, but it bears repeating again that yes, China will pay a lower

15:11

price for its gas than Europe will, but in any long-term business relationship,

15:20

what you want first and foremost is trust in your customer. The Europeans

15:27

have long since forfeited that trust. From the Russian point of view, they

15:34

were unreliable, fracturous, litigious, argumentative,

15:40

impossible partners, constantly critical, constantly making

15:46

and creating problems, constantly threatening. So from a Russian point of

15:53

view, so much easier, so much simpler to do your business with China. You don't

15:58

have to worry about all of that. You don't have to worry about the endless court cases and the critical articles

16:04

and the harassment and the constant threats and fears that the whole thing

16:10

could be closed down and stopped from one moment to the next. You know, have a

16:15

strong, reliable, trustworthy partner.

16:20

The partner may be paying a little less, but frankly, isn't that a premium you're

16:27

happy to give that partner in return for a long-term stable, ultimately

16:33

successful business relationship? This is again something the Europeans never

16:38

seem to get or understand.

16:46

——

On 28 September 2022, I explained and predicted that this would happen, and headlined “How America Is Crushing Europe”. Then, on 24 June 2023, I headlined “Now the Pay-off Comes from Blowing Up the Nord Stream Pipeline”, and reported that Germany had contracted to pay U.S. corporations for 20 years for U.S. LNG to replace what had previously been pipelined Russian natural gas but at more than twice the price that Germany had been paying to Russia and was contracted to pay to Russia for its pipelined gas, which pipelined gas the U.S. Government has required Germany to cancel, and did cancel, not merely by the U.S. Government’s blowing up the Nord \Stream pipelines, but by its sanctioning all energy from Russia — which is Europe’s largest nation both in population and in land-area and had been the natural-resources base for Europe’s economy. The U.S. Government, via its European stooges, has succeeded in taking that away from its European colonies, and America’s corporations are profiting greatly from this strangulation of what had been the foundation for Europe’s economies — it’s the American Government as vampire, feasting off its colonies.

On 29 August 2022, I headlined “Why RussChina Will Probably Be the Dominant Nation Beyond the Year 2100” and pointed out that Russia is the nation richest in natural resources, whereas China is the nation richest in human resources, and that they border one-another; and, so, what the U.S. Government is doing is to make Russia and China more dependent upon each other than was formerly the case. I said:

As regards the non-Russian parts of Europe (and understanding that the European part of Russia is the largest European nation both in terms of landmass and in terms of population), they will need to decide whether to orient more toward RussChina to their east, or toward CanAmerica across the Atlantic Ocean. If they choose the latter, then, for logistical reasons (across that ocean), they will be choosing to fade away into insignificance, no matter how near the North Pole the given European nation might happen to be. They have made the wrong choice, thus far. Probably, they will come to recognize this, during the coming winter. If they won’t, they will be dooming themselves, because both Russia and China will be making important decisions before next spring.

I was too optimistic when I said “Probably, they will come to recognize this.” Alexander Mercouris, in that and many other video presentations, has been reporting on the slave-like subordination of America’s European colonies to the U.S. Government. I had thought that there would be a limit to it, but there was not. And now the process of European decline has become irreversible. This means that all young Europeans will need to relocate to outside the U.S. empire. (This includes even nominally ‘neutral’ ones such as Swiss, because they are surrounded by the body that the U.S. vampire is feasting upon.)

On 19 May 2024, I headlined “China & Russia (ChinUssia or RussChina) Announce Their Foreign Policy”, and opened:

Here is the 16 May 2024 joint document from the Governments of China and Russia, announcing their foreign policy, the principles that are guiding and will continue to guide it — both of those two sovereign countries. I am posting it here online because when I checked online, on May 19th, trying to find it it English, I still didn’t find it; and, because it is certainly a document of major interest to historians, and should be widely available in an English-language translation, I am now rectifying that lack by posting it online here, in English:

The document is 8,000 words long, and asserts not only specifics between the two nations, but also the total emphasis upon win-win not only between themselves, but with all countries that are willing to do likewise with themselves (join in with the first preference being win-win), and resorting to win-lose only with countries that insist upon it, and never willing to resort to lose-lose except with a country that is pursuing a winner-take-all strategy. They will not tolerate that, from anyone, but the document says this in only diplomatic ways, such as:

　Both sides reaffirmed their adherence to the "Joint Statement of the Leaders of the Five Nuclear-Weapon States on Preventing Nuclear War and Avoiding an Arms Race" issued on January 3, 2022, especially the concept that a nuclear war cannot be won or fought, and once again called on all participating countries in the joint statement to follow this statement to the letter.

　　Both sides believe that all nuclear-weapon states should uphold the principles of maintaining global strategic stability, security, equality and indivisibility, and should not expand military alliances, and establish military bases near the borders of other nuclear-weapon states, especially the pre-deployment of nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles and other strategic military facilities that infringe upon each other's vital interests. Comprehensive measures must be taken to prevent direct military confrontation between nuclear-weapon states, focusing on eliminating the root causes of conflicts in the security field.

　　China and Russia support the success of the review process of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and at the same time oppose attempts to use the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and its review process for political purposes unrelated to the content of the treaty.

　　Both sides once again expressed serious concern about the United States' attempts to undermine strategic stability in order to maintain its absolute military superiority. …

Both sides believe that people of all countries share a common destiny, and no country should seek its own security at the expense of the security of other countries.

So, this is an ideological divide that the U.S. Government has now thrust upon the world; and RussChina or ChinUssia have expressed their contra to to the U.S. Government’s pro.

The U.S. Government’s position is not new. For example, it is the same position that Germany’s Government fought for during World War Two.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.