Sure, the Russians could go after Norway’s new pipeline. Or underwater cables, though those have an awful lot of redundancy.

But why?

Put it this way. Let’s say Russia breaks the 404 defenses, goes all the way, establishes a land bridge to Hungary. Which then translates into a land bridge to Serbia. Those countries, and those connected to them, can now safely defy the West in anything. Now their economic and military backs are all covered, as they join EAEU-NRI-INSTC.

That’s way, way worse than blowing up a pipeline. So just do that.

Maybe do the Norwegian pipeline too in early fall 2023, to punish Norway and Poland. Though I have to say, I’d put money on the Brits being Hersh’s source, to conveniently omit their role and the Poles. Truss sent what she sent, when she sent it. They were involved. But this way, the global story is now fixed at “The USA did it.” Of course the GAE was eyes-deep in this, and no-one outside believes their denials. But adding in “the UK arranged it with Polish help” just became difficult outside the West. Even if that was true. And was Norway actually complicit? That part of the story is weakest on the technical details.

Why even have these problems, when you’re trying to present yourselves as reliable and predictable to everyone else? Let the GAE be the globally-understood terrorist state. You can use that as a long-term vulnerability, in a strategic global contest over future infrastructure connectivity. So do that.

And keep positioning Wagner as the global Foreign Legion against globohomo. I wonder how many people have grasped that positioning yet? They will.

Even Russian fighting approaches like Systema are explicit that you fight emotionlessly. What matters is: you hit the other guy, deliver all of the energy without having tension that works against you, you don’t get distracted by trivia, and you look to affect the other guy’s overall structure with your strikes. You do the work (rabota) based on what the other side gives you to work with. Rabota emerges out of the movement.

What’s the core globohomo posture that Russia must collapse? If there are successive layers, what are they? How does any proposed escalation justify itself on that basis? What opportunities for rabota is globohomo giving us?

It’s emotionally unsatisfying. Until you win.

Against narcissists with fruit-fly attention spans, how should you fight? My personal enjoyment is to use globohomo’s reactivity to keep them running in circles and wearing down their legitimacy. I’ve seen that work. But then, globohomo are happy in that BPD environment, and every such attack leaves them a chance to do what they’re used to. An emotionless long-term grind that keeps forcing them into strategically less-favorable positions, while severing the ties they rely on manipulating, strikes me as the most favorable strategic baseline. And is also part of the usual personal recommendations for dealing with individual narcissists.