The Dhruzha Pipeline and the Expansion of the Iran War

Today, I want to start with the so-called Friendship pipeline that supplies mostly Hungary and Slovakia. Both countries are putting pressure on Ukraine because the Druzhba pipeline was critically damaged recently. This pipeline runs from Russia to Ukraine and beyond. It is legacy infrastructure from the Cold War. It has been used by the Russian Federation to keep these two countries dependent on it for energy. Yes, this explains one of the reasons these two oppose Kyiv at every turn. They rightfully fear a collapse of their economy. And there are no sufficient pipelines yet to replace it.

Some EU countries are increasing pressure on Kyiv over the “Friendship” pipeline and demanding permission to inspect the damaged pipeline.

Budapest and Bratislava accuse Kyiv of delaying the restoration after the January Russian strike and claim that Ukraine is allegedly exaggerating the scale of the destruction.

One of the high-ranking EU diplomats said that Ukraine “scored an own goal”, giving Hungary a reason to block funding:

“We can’t say whether there are damages or not. There are very simple ways to document this and show that active restoration is being carried out. But this was not done.”

In Kyiv, they insist that the infrastructure was seriously damaged as a result of the Russian airstrike. The head of “Naftogaz”, Sergei Koretsky, reported that after the strike, a tank with a volume of 75 thousand cubic meters of oil caught fire, the fire was extinguished for ten days, and cables, transformers, and a leak detection system were damaged.

The Ukrainian authorities state that evidence of the destruction has been provided to European partners, and the refusal to allow inspectors access is explained by security considerations.

The problem has intensified against the backdrop of rising energy prices following the military actions of the USA and Israel against Iran, which have affected global oil and gas supplies.

Source: Financial Times

This is politics at its best. It is also internal in Hungary because elections are coming, and so far, Viktor Orbán’s party is not doing well. We shall see what happens, but you can bet he will use that to mobilize the people in his country. By the way, most of his support is rural. So the politics accelerate, and Orban is a willful client of Russia. This is where many of his policies on Ukraine are coming from.

Internally, Russians are also facing an accelerating inflation. And when they wonder why? It is because of this war:

Many Russians continue to wonder why the prices of products in stores have become so high, what happened?

Let me try to explain — “something happened” in 2022, before that “something happened” in 2014, but in general, we need to look back to 2000, when a Soviet secret police officer was put on the throne, expecting him to build something other than a Gulag.

Text by Maxim Morovich

We will share this fate in the United States because the war that President Donald Trump got us into will also affect our economy in predictable ways. So let me address MAGA for a second. Are you feeling duped already? Or are you still happy you owned the libs? Because we would not be in this pickle if the nice lady with a funny laugh were president right now. All those claims from Trump on the campaign trail that Kamala Harris would get us into a war were another confession of intent. We know because people like Miles Taylor, who were there last administration, have told us that was the intent last time around:

When President Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, many career DHS officials watched with growing apprehension. It was my second year in the Trump administration, and I remember hearing from them directly. A veteran counterterrorism official showed up outside my office the week Trump pulled out from the deal. He knew the region like the back of his hand.

“Are we going to war?” he asked bluntly.

“I wouldn’t know,” I told him. “We’re not involved.”

“What? If we hit them, DHS is the one playing defense. Immediately.”

“You’re preaching to the choir.”

Despite the profound implications for domestic security, the White House had seemingly cut DHS out of key conversations on Iran. Donald Trump didn’t like to hear “no,” and more often than not, the Department was the one to pump the breaks when it looked like a Trump foreign policy decision would put Americans in harms way. By the time the president began toying with a more confrontational posture toward Iran, DHS officials were already being kept at arm’s length.

It is my duty to share with you just how bad this is already getting. So I would like to look at this as an expanding war, that is already a large regional conflict, which may soon look like a global war. When this is over, the Trump Administration needs to be in front of a judge and go to prison for the rest of their natural lives.

So now that we are in the middle of this, how is this looking to the Z-Bloggers? And I am using the Important Stories filter. You need to understand that for Russia, this is good, in a way. We are otherwise occupied, and sending weapons and help to Ukraine is not going to be a priority when Embassies and Consulates in the region are presently burning. The photo bellow is Rhyad in Saudi Arabia:

«A verdict on Russia» and «a catastrophe»: while Russian federal media are trying to find US failures in the war against Iran, Z-bloggers fear that Moscow could become the target of the West’s next operation

Most Moscow media are trying to portray the operation against Iran as a failure. But the mood in pro-war channels is quite different, noted «MOS».

🔹«Iran outperformed itself», «The US got a beating» — this is how the war in the Middle East is described by experts of Putin’s favorite newspaper «Komsomolskaya Pravda». They assess the effectiveness of US attacks on the «Quartet», and Israel’s actions on the «Trio». The death of Khamenei is seen as a plus for Iran: «New, younger and more energetic leaders have taken over the country». It is suggested that the US, out of desperation, will launch a nuclear strike on Iran.

🔹The Americans are «too fat» for a ground operation in Iran, assures readers of «Moskovsky Komsomolets» Stanislav Krapivnik, a «military expert». In his opinion, the extra weight of soldiers reduces the combat capability of the US army: «If we dismiss those suffering from obesity, there will be no one to serve. Who to replace them with? Now women are already serving in the infantry and tank forces».

🔹The operation is not going according to Washington’s plan, confidently writes the governmental «Russian Gazette». The expert calls the loss of three US fighters a «plane crash, and the reason for the US military’s failures is seen in the AI that the Pentagon connected to the planning of the operation — it is assumed that it malfunctions».

And Z-bloggers fear that Russia could repeat Iran’s fate:

🔺«The killing of Khamenei is a verdict on Russia: there’s nowhere to run!» — warns Tsargrad of the Orthodox oligarch Malofeev. Today, Russia finds itself in strategic isolation, writes the author of the article. «While our soldiers have been dying in ambushes for the fifth year, the Americans have switched to methods that solve global problems in one day. Either Russia will remember that strength is not only in the hegemon, or it will become the next in the list of operations».

🔺Propagandist Sergey Karnaukhov fears that after Iran, the US will take on Russia. «They will deal with us in the same way now, and even more harshly strike at Russia!»

🔺The Russian regime in 2025 could follow the Iranian path, believes the ideologist of the «Russian World» Yegor Kholmogorov. The reason he sees in the «petty prohibitionism, with which the ayatollahs have driven a considerable part of the country’s citizens to the most fierce hatred of this regime».

🔺«Against the backdrop of [the US operation], our clumsy geostrategists look downright pitiful», admits Z-futurologist Maxim Kalashnikov. «Instead of beheading the enemy and paralyzing his rear — thousands of cruise missiles, ballistics and drones were thrown to the dogs <…> Well, now Trump will teach you a lesson, you cunning ones!»

However, there is a certain fear that Russians are next, because let’s face it, there are reasons to fear an expansion of this war. And yes, what Trump has done will make an expansion into Europe very possible:

Tehran threatens to attack Europe if it joins the war against Iran

Iranian authorities have stated that even defensive measures could be perceived as a provocation and lead to strikes on the territory of European countries.

Defense is synonymous with pre-emptive action. No matter what, they want to deprive Iran of the opportunity to fight against aggressors

- said the representative of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaeil Baghaei.

According to him, it would be “regrettable” if European countries sided with the US, because they have already done “enough” against Iran.

This warning is not idle, as Lithuania considers sending troops to assist the United States. This strikes me as a crazy thing to do, given that the Russian bear is considering going after the Baltics, but people are doing this to placate the United States and the present administration.

And now we are transforming this war into a religious war. This is the statement from the Secretary of Defense, according to an anonymous NCO:

“This morning our commander opened up the combat readiness status briefing by urging us to not be ‘afraid’ as to what is happening with our combat operations in Iran right now,” the NCO wrote.

“He said that ‘President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,’” the NCO continued. “He had a big grin on his face when he said all of this which made his message seem even more crazy.”

It wouldn’t be a stretch to blame some of the blatant constitutional violations on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has repeatedly evoked God and Christian nationalism in his time fronting the Pentagon.

Hegseth has parroted the views of Douglas Wilson, a conservative theologian who advocated for Christian dominance over government and society. He has followed through in practice, instating regular prayer services at America’s military headquarters. He also entered office with several Christian symbols already emblazoned on his skin — a Jerusalem cross and the phrase “Deus vult” — in what Hegseth has described as emblems of the “modern-day American Christian crusade.”

This is the latest in a shifting series of reasons for this war. And this is one of the most dangerous reasons. It plays directly into Iranian eschatology. It violates the separation of church and state and undermines good order and discipline because the US Force is not exclusively a crusader force. It is supposed to be a volunteer force representing all the nation, and a non-religious force.

During the Second Iraqi war we saw some incidents like this within the military, and all were nipped in the bud. Because the president went out of his way to explain that this was not a religious war. So the eschatology was limited to certain corners of the Internet and some evangelical churches. That it did not remain just a war between secular forces because it gave rise to the Islamic State is also true. But this, the blowback will be spectacular, because this is coming from the leadership of the United States Department of Defense.