One of the dumber talking points over the last month regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the idea that masses of Republicans are “Putin stooges,” doing his bidding with their rhetoric and policy positions. Polling has shown that to be a ridiculous contention, with GOP voters matching or outpacing Democrats in regards to denouncing the Russian dictator’s actions.
But as it turns out, leftwingers across the globe have been doing “Putin’s bidding” on a key topic that helped lead Europe to its current crisis. The Sun claims that Russia spent millions on fracking to boost its oil and gas exports to the global market.
Putin spreading false news about fracking: How he spent millions
My latest article: https://t.co/OBR4cV0abs
— Matt Ridley (@mattwridley) March 15, 2022
Russian support for anti-fracking campaigns over the past decade took the form of public comments from the Kremlin’s cronies, a blizzard of scare stories on the Russia Today TV channel, some overt political lobbying by the country’s Gazprom and Russian money almost certainly finding its way into the coffers of environmental pressure groups.
In 2011 Gazprom, a firm with a mixed environmental record, claimed wrongly: “The production of shale gas is associated with significant environmental risks, in particular the hazard of surface and underground water contamination with chemicals.”
Alexander Medvedev is the Gazprom Export general director. He said that fracking in Europe would not work.
But just in case it did, he added in a speech in Brussels that the Russian state was “ready to wage its war on shale”…
…In just six months Russia Today ran scores of anti-shale stories, with headlines like:
“Wrecking the Earth: Fracking has grave radiation risks few talk about”, “Fracking fluid linked to fish die-off”, “US fracking wells annually produce 280bn gallons of toxic waste water destroying environment”, “We say no to shale gas”, “Fracking nightmare”, “Fracking chemicals disrupt human hormone functions, study claims”, “Living near fracking sites increases infant birth defects”, “Hundreds gather for anti-fracking march in Manchester”.
Well, isn’t that interesting? Russia has long spread misinformation about fracking despite the fact that it’s a safer and far cleaner way to extract oil and gas than conventional drilling (i.e. Russia is doing. Yet, instead of accepting that reality, the global left has helped spread Putin’s propaganda, which has emboldened and enriched Russia while making Europe energy-dependent on the controversial nation.
The dependence on Russian oil was the foundation of Ukraine’s crisis and more generally in Europe. If Putin didn’t have so many European nations over a barrel, with the ability to crash their economies and cost lives by cutting off oil and gas supplies, he never would have had the leverage to enter Ukraine in the first place. Yet, the greens, so obsessed with pretending fracking is dangerous, did Putin’s dirty work for him, effectively ending the practice in Europe outside of the Nordic countries.
This can be seen in the United States, too. The leftwingers of the United States have been insisting for over ten years that fracking is poisonous to water and makes fire erupt from faucets. Although there is no evidence to support this claim, it has been the foundation of Democratic opposition to fracking at the highest levels.
Vladimir Putin has been empowered by nothing more than that. So tell me again, who are the “Putin stooges” now?
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