Putin believed that blowing up the now worthless pipelines via a false flag would put him in a position to further dictate Western EU policy but instead EU figured out how they could survive without his nat gas.
After all, once upon a time they managed to.

China and India can't create enough demand to consume the equivalent of EU demand either and it will take up to ten years to build pipelines to them anyway.
Putin has screwed himself six ways to Sunday and his people know it.

"The Best of the Leon Russell Festivals" DVD
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