Nord Stream 2
Nord Stream 2 (German-English mixed expression; german: Nord and en, Stream 2, literally 'North Stream2'; russian: Северный поток — 2) is a natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany running through the Baltic Sea, financed by Gazprom and several European energy companies. The construction of the pipeline started in 2011, to expand the Nord Stream 1 line and double annual capacity to . It was completed in September 2021, but has not yet entered service. Planning and construction of the pipeline were mired in political controversy over fears that Russia would use it for geopolitical advantage with Europe and Ukraine, and that the US would lose political influence over Ukraine. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who had been in favour of the project, suspended its certification on 22 February 2022, following official recognition of the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic by the Russian State Duma and President Putin during the prelude to the 202 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gazprom
PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the largest publicly listed natural gas company in the world and the largest company in Russia by revenue. In the 2020 ''Forbes'' Global 2000, Gazprom was ranked as the 32nd largest public company in the world. The Gazprom name is a contraction of the Russian words ''gazovaya promyshlennost'' (, gas industry). In January 2022, Gazprom displaced Sberbank from the first place in the list of the largest companies in Russia by market capitalization. Gazprom is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, transport, distribution and marketing, and power generation. In 2018, Gazprom produced twelve percent of the global output of natural gas, producing 497.6 billion cubic m ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eighth of Earth's inhabitable landmass. Russia extends across eleven time zones and shares land boundaries with fourteen countries, more than any other country but China. It is the world's ninth-most populous country and Europe's most populous country, with a population of 146 million people. The country's capital and largest city is Moscow, the largest city entirely within Europe. Saint Petersburg is Russia's cultural centre and second-largest city. Other major urban areas include Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and Kazan. The East Slavs emerged as a recognisable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE. Kievan Rus' arose as a state in the 9th century, and in 988, it adopted Orthodox Christianity from t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sabotage
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identities because of the consequences of their actions and to avoid invoking legal and organizational requirements for addressing sabotage. Etymology The English word derives from the French word , meaning to "bungle, botch, wreck or sabotage"; it was originally used to refer to labour disputes, in which workers wearing wooden shoes called interrupted production through different means. A popular but incorrect account of the origin of the term's present meaning is the story that poor workers in the Belgian city of Liège would throw a wooden into the machines to disrupt production. One of the first appearances of and in French literature is in the of d'Hautel, edited in 1808. In it the literal definition is to 'make noise with sabots' a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been described as a ''sui generis'' political entity (without precedent or comparison) combining the characteristics of both a federation and a confederation. Containing 5.8per cent of the world population in 2020, the EU generated a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of around trillion in 2021, constituting approximately 18per cent of global nominal GDP. Additionally, all EU states but Bulgaria have a very high Human Development Index according to the United Nations Development Programme. Its cornerstone, the Customs Union, paved the way to establishing an internal single market based on standardised legal framework and legislation that applies in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where the states have agreed to ac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2022 Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage
The 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage consisted of a series of clandestine bombings and subsequent underwater gas leaks that occurred on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines on 26 September 2022. The sabotage happened as the Baltic Pipe was being opened for natural gas to come in from the North Sea through Denmark to Poland; however, the perpetrators' identities and the motives behind the sabotage remain debated. Both pipeline pairs were built to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea, and are majority owned by the Russian majority state-owned gas company, Gazprom. Prior to the leaks, the pipelines had not been operating due to disputes between Russia and the European Union in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine but were filled with natural gas. On 26 September at 02:03 local time ( CEST), an explosion was detected originating from Nord Stream 2; a pressure drop in the pipeline was reported and natural gas began esca ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Prelude To The 2022 Russian Invasion Of Ukraine
In March and April 2021, the Russian Armed Forces began massing thousands of personnel and military equipment near Russia's border with Ukraine and in Crimea, representing the largest mobilization since the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. This precipitated an international crisis due to concerns over a potential invasion. Satellite imagery showed movements of armour, missiles, and heavy weaponry. The troops were partially withdrawn by June 2021, though the infrastructure was left in place. A second build-up began in October 2021, this time with more soldiers and with deployments on new fronts; by December over 100,000 Russian troops were massed around Ukraine on three sides, including Belarus from the north and Crimea from the south. Despite the Russian military build-ups, Russian officials from November 2021 to 20 February 2022 repeatedly denied that Russia had plans to invade Ukraine. The crisis was related to the War in Donbas, itself part of the Russo-Ukraini ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime minister from 1999 to 2000 and from 2008 to 2012, and as president from 2000 to 2008 and since 2012. Putin worked as a KGB foreign intelligence officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel before resigning in 1991 to begin a political career in Saint Petersburg. He moved to Moscow in 1996 to join the administration of president Boris Yeltsin. He briefly served as director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and secretary of the Security Council of Russia, before being appointed as prime minister in August 1999. After the resignation of Yeltsin, Putin became Acting President of Russia and, less than four months later, was elected outright to his first term as president. He was reelected in 2004. As he was constitutio ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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State Duma
The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house is the Federation Council. The Duma headquarters are located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to as deputies. The State Duma replaced the Supreme Soviet as a result of the new constitution introduced by Boris Yeltsin in the aftermath of the Russian constitutional crisis of 1993, and approved in a nationwide referendum. In the 2007 and 2011 Russian legislative elections a full party-list proportional representation with 7% electoral threshold system was used, but this was subsequently repealed. The legislature's term length was initially 2 years in the 1993–1995 elections period, and 4 years in 1999–2007 elections period; since the 2011 elections the term length is 5 years. History Ear ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Luhansk People's Republic
The Luhansk or Lugansk People's Republic (russian: Луга́нская Наро́дная Респу́блика, Luganskaya Narodnaya Respublika, ; abbreviated as LPR or LNR, rus, ЛНР) is a disputed entity created by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which claims Luhansk Oblast. It began as a breakaway state (2014–2022) and was then annexed by Russia in 2022. The city of Luhansk is the claimed capital city. Pro-Russian unrest erupted in the Donbas region in response to the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity. In April 2014, armed pro-Russian separatists seized government buildings and declared the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) and Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) as independent states, which received no international recognition prior to 2022. Ukraine and others viewed them as Russian puppet states and as terrorist organisations. This sparked the War in Donbas, part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War which also saw the Russian occupation and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Donetsk People's Republic
The Donetsk People's Republic ( rus, Донецкая Народная Республика, Donetskaya Narodnaya Respublika, dɐˈnʲetskəjə nɐˈrodnəjə rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə; abbreviated as DPR or DNR, rus, ДНР) is a disputed entity created by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which claims Donetsk Oblast. It began as a breakaway state (2014–2022) and was then annexed by Russia in 2022. The city of Donetsk is the claimed capital city. Pro-Russian unrest erupted in the Donbas region in response to the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity. In April 2014, armed pro-Russian separatists seized government buildings and declared the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) as independent states, which received no international recognition prior to 2022. Ukraine and others viewed them as Russian puppet states and as terrorist organisations. This sparked the War in Donbas, part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War which also saw ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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International Recognition Of The Donetsk People's Republic And The Luhansk People's Republic
The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) are two Russian civilian-military administrative regimes in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Russia claims to have annexed them, although it only occupies part of their claimed territories , and treats them as its federal subjects. Before October 2022, they claimed independence from Ukraine, although the international community continues to consider them part of Ukraine's sovereign territory. The DPR and LPR were proclaimed by Russian-supported separatists in 2014 during the War in Donbas. The militants running the republics held secession referendums, on 11 May 2014. The results of the referendums were not officially accepted by any government except Russia. The Ukrainian government regarded the pro-Russian separatists as terrorists. The DPR and the LPR attempted to enter into a union in 2014, namely "Novorossiya", although the project was abandoned by 2015. In 2014, South Ossetia—itself a breaka ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Euractiv
Euractiv (styled EURACTIV) is a pan-European news website specialised in EU policies, founded in 1999 by the French media publisher Christophe Leclercq. Its headquarters and central editorial staff are located in Brussels,with further offices in Paris and Berlin. Its content is produced by about 50 journalists staffed in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia. EURACTIV's reporting focuses on the pre-legislative stage of EU decision-making, with up to 2,750 articles translated per year. In addition to EURACTIV's editorial team, the company has established partnerships with media outlets such as Der Tagesspiegel, Agencia EFE and Ouest-France. EURACTIV has diversified sources of funding, as the company seeks private and public revenues to run its business. In 2019, about a fifth of EURACTIV's income came from public sources, including the EU. Other sources of revenue are advertising and corporate sponsoring. Ke ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |