This is exactly the story that happened to the Polish energy expert Andrzej Szczęśniak, whose article about «how Ukraine was deceived when buying Russian gas» in Myśl Polska «unexpectedly» became very popular and promoted in the Russian media. «Independent expert», as Szczęśniak is called the Russian propaganda agencies, for the gullible they hide behind the name and status of the media. But there is no need to have any exceptional analytical abilities to see that for the last month the pan expert was only engaged in promoting energy narratives and projects of Russia, in particular, with the special focus on the unforgettable «Nord Stream-2», which for him is a «guarantee of energy security of Europe», which in itself is ridiculous, if to recall the story of its construction and the failure of the Russian side to fulfill its obligations to put it into operation. If we talk about the «deception of Ukraine» – the keynote of Szczęśniak's article – one can only sympathize with the expert community of Poland, who has lost a colleague, and remember one truth.
Namely, cooperation with Moscow kills, not necessarily physically. Morally, mentally and intellectually – definitely! This is exactly what happened to Szczęśniak. Because a person, creating the scheme of «deception» according to the Moscow narratives, completely forgot about the basics of economics, which were determined back in the days of Adam Smith and Locke. This is the only way to explain the thesis of the article that Ukraine, they say, has been buying the same Russian gas from Slovakia and Hungary (not Poland) on the European stock exchange since 2015 only at a high price. But the «expert» should have known that after the sale to Europe, Russian gas is no longer Russian. This is elementary for those who understand what goods-money relations are, but annoys the heirs of the Bolsheviks, who called for «plunder the loot and divide everything», who are now sitting in the Kremlin, and without any hesitation, give idiotic theses to their «experts» all around the world. The gas price for Ukraine did not become 25-50 % higher, as Szczęśniak tried to show. Ukraine paid for the actual price of gas and the cost of transportation to the border with Europe via its GTS. For some reason, the Kremlin «gallant knights» are afraid to conflict with the EU, somewhere a harsh tone and rudeness disappears and this reverse works wonderfully, ensuring energy security and Ukraine's independence from Moscow. After Ukraine won the Stockholm arbitration, in which the terms of the gas supply contract from the Russian Federation according to the take-or-pay rule (Ukraine had to choose excess gas volumes for itself at an ultra-high price) were considered discriminatory, Moscow had to part with almost five billion dollars, which Gazprom paid as compensation to Naftogaz...
So, «for a small share» experts from Europe can violate morality and lie, and degrade. This is not always obvious. But the world finds mechanisms to combat untruth. By the way, the International Office to Counter Disinformation will soon start working in Ukraine. Russian fakes, of course, will not disappear, but when the fight against them goes on a systematic basis, Moscow propagandists and their sub-laborers in Europe will have a hard time and «work» will not work. And at any time, some of the potential Peter Munches will not receive a stone heart and afterlife sobs because he made a deal with the current incarnation of the «prince of this world»...
mPolska24
