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posted by martyb on Saturday January 08 2022, @10:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the charge-the-miners-more? dept.

Kosovo bans cryptocurrency mining after blackouts:

The government says security services will identify and clamp down on sources of cryptocurrency mining.

The mining is energy intensive and involves verifying digital transactions to get cryptocurrencies as a reward.

While all of Europe faces sharp price rises, Kosovo is enforcing rolling blackouts amid an electricity shortage.

The Balkan state's largest coal-fired power plant was shut down last month over a technical issue, forcing the government to import electricity at high prices.

A 60-day state of emergency, declared in December, gave the government powers to allocate more money for energy imports and impose stricter restrictions on power usage.

The blackouts have sparked protests and calls for the resignation of Economy Minister Artane Rizvanolli.

Energy prices are skyrocketing across Europe for various reasons, including low supplies from Russia and high demand for natural gas as economies recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The spike has been fuelled by geopolitical tensions with Russia, which supplies one third of Europe's gas. Russia has rejected European accusations that it has limited gas deliveries while tensions are raised


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday January 08 2022, @11:42AM (31 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Saturday January 08 2022, @11:42AM (#1211035)

    Cryptocurrency mining is currently using energy on the scale of fairly large countries. And while the crypto it produces is allegedly valuable, it has no actual usage whatsoever. Say what you will about cash, but you could in theory burn it for warmth or melt it down for metal, whereas crypto can't even do that.

    As for the geopolitical stuff between Europe and Russia, I've always figured that had a lot to do with the EU's push towards renewable power generation, and also a lot to do with (currently failing) efforts to create pipelines between Iraq and the EU through Turkey and Syria.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Saturday January 08 2022, @12:15PM (7 children)

      by looorg (578) on Saturday January 08 2022, @12:15PM (#1211036)

      Not sure about what the tension is really all about. It could be that. It could be for other reasons. It could be the NATO expansion, or at least that is what appears to be what Putin is trying to tell us all it's currently about. Or that we should stay the fuck out of his biz in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan (... and probably all the other *stans that are former soviet republics aka his domain). A lot of the EU power issue at the moment seems to be from everyone deciding sort of at the same time to turn of or age out their nuclear power plants and thanks to the wonders of the "green economy" where we should all get power from windturbines prices on the common electricity stockmarket (why not add stupid gambling to the commodity mix!) have indeed skyrocketed.

      Considering the massive hike and electricity prices in Europe this winter is there even worth and value in mining crypto here at the moment? Unless you steal electricity from someone else.

      That is unless you are some kind of megacorp ala Facebook and Google and sort of got into your contracts that you more or less get free electricity or heavily subsidized one for your datacenters.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by khallow on Saturday January 08 2022, @12:21PM (6 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 08 2022, @12:21PM (#1211037) Journal

        Or that we should stay the fuck out of his biz

        Is he going to reciprocate? He going to stay out of all that biz he's currently meddling in? Not just including the places you mentioned, but Russia too?

        At some point, you have to realize that a large part of the problem is that Putin is in a lot of biz that isn't his. Else you can't resolve this.

        • (Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday January 08 2022, @01:05PM (5 children)

          by looorg (578) on Saturday January 08 2022, @01:05PM (#1211044)

          I doubt it. He is indeed. I guess he considers all former soviet republics and eastern align states as his sphere of influence or something such. But I guess he takes his ideas from other "great leaders". They tend to all go for that do what I say not what I do kind of thinking. The same rules does not apply and we are not even playing the same game from the look of it. Sort of like Uncle Sam doesn't like it when other people meddle in his biz either and if the last 70 years or so is any kind of indicator you fuck with Sam at your own peril.

          The other part is that he probably knows the the EU whine and bitch a bit. After all what are they going to do? Send him a harshly worded letter? Auch. They can't really agree on much else then that, most of the time not even that. Economic sanction? Doesn't bother him and his cronies to much either.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @05:16PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @05:16PM (#1211094)

            The Russian troll is string in this one. Is he paid by Russia?

            • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @06:08PM (1 child)

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @06:08PM (#1211099)

              Maybe, but string trolls are paid with balls of string, so anyone can afford to hire them.

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @06:25PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @06:25PM (#1211105)

                That will keep them amused for.several hours but you still have to pay for the cat food.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 09 2022, @12:16AM (1 child)

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 09 2022, @12:16AM (#1211163) Journal

            Sort of like Uncle Sam doesn't like it when other people meddle in his biz either and if the last 70 years or so is any kind of indicator you fuck with Sam at your own peril.

            I take it Putin will get curb stomped Real Soon Now (TM) by scary Uncle Sam?

            • (Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday January 09 2022, @07:48AM

              by looorg (578) on Sunday January 09 2022, @07:48AM (#1211215)

              Who knows, he might be some kind of exception to the rule. It's much easier to curb stomp small tinpot dictators instead of big once. It's not that he couldn't, it might be a question of does he want to or is it worth the effort, the price and the cost.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday January 08 2022, @12:37PM (10 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 08 2022, @12:37PM (#1211040) Journal

      And while the crypto it produces is allegedly valuable, it has no actual usage whatsoever.

      Except for the traditional uses that money gets put to. Those are extremely valuable.

      Say what you will about cash, but you could in theory burn it for warmth or melt it down for metal, whereas crypto can't even do that.

      In other words, a very slight value as opposed to no value. Thus in theory, there's no real difference in value between cash and cryptocurrency as a result.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @02:52PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @02:52PM (#1211059)
        There's two huge differences between fiat currency and cryptocurrency.

        1. The cost, both to produce fiat currency, and to the encirclement, is much lower.

        2. There's no limit to how much fiat currency can be produced. There's only a fixed number of coins for cryptocurrency, and when they're gone, they're gone. How you gonna mine more? At that point, the gold rush is over and the cryptocurrency collapses.

        There's also the issue of permanent loss of cryptocurrency - there's plenty of couns that can no longer be used for anything because the password is lost.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @03:17PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @03:17PM (#1211063)

          Could you expand on this meaning of "encirclement"? I see it's a military term, perhaps in a currency context it has something to do with the army of the country that issues the currency?

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday January 08 2022, @06:11PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 08 2022, @06:11PM (#1211100) Journal
            I'm guessing that it's something like infrastructure or investment. Translation weirdness. English has such a bizarre history and much overloading of words. For example, to encircle a town or fortification is to beseige it. But a synonym for beseige is invest.

            A military historian might well call an encirclement an investment.
          • (Score: 2) by coolgopher on Saturday January 08 2022, @10:34PM (1 child)

            by coolgopher (1157) on Saturday January 08 2022, @10:34PM (#1211142)

            Looks like an auto correct of what should have been "environment".

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @11:17PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @11:17PM (#1211147)

              Yep. Damn auto correct strikes again. Even after you've supposedly turned it off, stupid browser still uses it "because it can't be turned off in the browser - for your convenience."

              Maybe I'll change the system language to something else and auto-correct won't try to fix english … or try to sanitize certain "bad words."

              And people seriously want me to consider Idiot-of-Things devices? Maybe I can sell an NFT of my saying "fuck off."

      • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Saturday January 08 2022, @06:53PM (4 children)

        by fustakrakich (6150) on Saturday January 08 2022, @06:53PM (#1211110) Journal

        Thus in theory, there's no real difference in value between cash and cryptocurrency as a result.

        Cash is way more robust. You don't need a computer, or even electricity, to use cash/scrip

        --
        La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 09 2022, @12:08AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 09 2022, @12:08AM (#1211159) Journal

          Cash is way more robust. You don't need a computer, or even electricity, to use cash/scrip/quote How many people don't have that? And if you're speaking of some society level dysfunction, well, I bet physical cash won't fare so well in a post-electricity society.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 09 2022, @12:09AM (2 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 09 2022, @12:09AM (#1211160) Journal
          Trying again:

          Cash is way more robust. You don't need a computer, or even electricity, to use cash/scrip

          How many people don't have that? And if you're speaking of some society level dysfunction, well, I bet physical cash won't fare so well in a post-electricity society.

          • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday January 09 2022, @03:34AM (1 child)

            by fustakrakich (6150) on Sunday January 09 2022, @03:34AM (#1211186) Journal

            There will always be local markets [nyt.com], physical coinage will be the only viable medium in your "post apocalyptic" society, no ATMs and 5G to count your bits

            --
            La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 09 2022, @05:28AM

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 09 2022, @05:28AM (#1211198) Journal
              So local markets and physical coinage (that doesn't presently exist except as a niche collector item). So not something that you could use over the present day internet, right?

              To give an example of the advantages and disadvantages of cryptocurrency, there's those bitcoin wallets with large amounts of bitcoins that have been untouched by everyone, owners through national actors. If everyone knew that there was a billion dollars of cash piled up somewhere, something would have happened to that cash by now, backhoe operator or national tax collector. The existence of these dead wallets indicates that there's a place to put stuff that's beyond the reach of even the most powerful. You can't do that with cash.
    • (Score: 1, Troll) by crafoo on Saturday January 08 2022, @02:48PM (4 children)

      by crafoo (6639) on Saturday January 08 2022, @02:48PM (#1211058)

      What is so predictable but so funny as well:

      "Energy prices are skyrocketing across Europe for various reasons"

      Oh, right! Various Reasons! It wasn't the Greens completely raping your energy economy with their squirrel-like understanding of economics and practical decision making skills.

      • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @05:21PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @05:21PM (#1211095)

        Ah ha...another Russki troll, right here in Soylent City.

      • (Score: -1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @09:07PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @09:07PM (#1211126)
        Name one EU country where the greens hold a majority. We can wait …
        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Sunday January 09 2022, @05:42AM (1 child)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 09 2022, @05:42AM (#1211201) Journal
          See Germany. They don't have to hold a majority to shutdown ~20 GW of non-fossil fuel nuclear power (16 GW so far since 2011 and the remaining 4 GW later in 2022).
    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by owl on Sunday January 09 2022, @03:03AM (5 children)

      by owl (15206) on Sunday January 09 2022, @03:03AM (#1211181)

      Be careful with comparisons, it is always possible to invent any desired outcome.

      I.e., watch: Research: Bitcoin Consumes Less Than Half The Energy Of The Banking Or Gold Industries [nasdaq.com]

      A recent report from Galaxy Digital found that the Bitcoin network consumes less than half the energy consumed by the banking or gold industries.

      A recently released research report from Galaxy Digital has calculated the energy consumed by the Bitcoin network and then compared it to other industries, including the banking industry. It found that Bitcoin consumes 113.89 terawatt hours (TWh) per year, while the banking industry consumes 263.72 TWh per year.

      So based on that comparison, Bitcoin is only 43% as bad as the traditional banking sector.

      Now, granted, "Bitcoin" is but one cryptocurrency in the set of cryptocurrencies, but the reality is, these 'comparisons' that begin with "Thing X, uses 3x the Y of country Z" are setting up a specific narrative to convince you to believe a specific point. If there is no discussion of why "country Z" or why "Y" was chosen, then the default assumption should be "to spin the story in the direction someone wanted it spun.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @01:45PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @01:45PM (#1211238)

        OMG! how can bitcoin use less energy then the system it relies on?
        the "price of bitcoin" is always in a fiat currency.
        it makes no sense to say "one bitcoin is valued at 0.78 bitcoins today".
        also so much infrastructure required for cry-top is bought with fiat and energy bills are paid in fiat.
        no fiat, no bitcoin (value).

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @04:46PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @04:46PM (#1211258)
        Next look up the number of transactions done by the banking sector per day vs the number of bitcoin transactions done per day.
      • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday January 09 2022, @05:21PM (2 children)

        by Thexalon (636) on Sunday January 09 2022, @05:21PM (#1211268)

        So here's another way of looking at it:
        1. What would happen to the world if all crypto suddenly disappeared?
        2. What would happen to the world if all banking suddenly disappeared?

        That should give you a good gut check about whether crypto is a good use of energy.

        --
        The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
        • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday January 10 2022, @05:36PM (1 child)

          by Freeman (732) on Monday January 10 2022, @05:36PM (#1211546) Journal

          That's dumb. The world would keep on ticking, if I didn't get a nice cup of tea every now and again. Sure would suck, though. Just because the world won't come to a screeching halt, if X thing ceased to exist, doesn't make X thing good/bad.

          --
          Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
          • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday January 10 2022, @05:53PM

            by Thexalon (636) on Monday January 10 2022, @05:53PM (#1211554)

            It's not about good vs bad, it's about essential vs luxury. When you're trying to allocate resources, "what if it doesn't happen at all" is always a useful question to ask.

            As a simple example, "Should I pay the rent, or should I order another round of drinks?" is an easy question, because of the consequences of not paying the rent vs not buying another round.

            --
            The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Monday January 10 2022, @06:30PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday January 10 2022, @06:30PM (#1211571) Journal

      If they were to mine enough cryptocurrency, then they could afford to upgrade their energy infrastructure. And thus afford making more cryptocurrency.

      And if money grew on trees, I could just plant more and more trees, and pick their leaves frequently, but leave enough leaves so that the tree doesn't die.

      It would be my secret. Nobody else would think of a brilliant idea like this.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday January 08 2022, @12:32PM (3 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 08 2022, @12:32PM (#1211039) Journal

    While all of Europe faces sharp price rises, Kosovo is enforcing rolling blackouts amid an electricity shortage.

    The Balkan state's largest coal-fired power plant was shut down last month over a technical issue, forcing the government to import electricity at high prices.

    A 60-day state of emergency, declared in December, gave the government powers to allocate more money for energy imports and impose stricter restrictions on power usage.

    One obvious problem with this narrative is that cryptomining is driven by electricity prices. If electricity is expensive, they'll mine somewhere else. So if it's really a problem, while energy imports are expensive, that means someone is heavily subsidizing electricity consumption. Time to stop doing that.

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @02:33PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @02:33PM (#1211056)

      So if it's really a problem, while energy imports are expensive, that means someone is heavily subsidizing electricity consumption. Time to stop doing that.

      Maybe electricity for residential use is cheaper there. Obvious solution is to increase the cost of higher usage tiers significantly. So the poor can still get cheap electricity for "base consumption" but those doing significant mining will have higher costs.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday January 08 2022, @04:13PM (1 child)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 08 2022, @04:13PM (#1211071) Journal

      cryptomining is driven by electricity prices.

      I disagree.

      https://www.hackread.com/police-seize-illegal-cryptomining-farm-ps4/ [hackread.com]

      Stolen electricity amounted to roughly $259,300 monthly
      As per the current estimates, the stolen electricity amounted from between $186,200 to $259,300 monthly. Officials state that they raided the farm as well as the offenders’ residences, and some of the hardware was recovered from there.

      https://duckduckgo.com/?q=police+raid+cryptomining+stolen+electricity&atb=v306-1&ia=web [duckduckgo.com]

      It is my position that most cryptocurrency is a scam. Stolen electricity just adds to the scam. There is no evidence that any cryptominer has ever provided even a single crust of bread for homeless and hungry.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 09 2022, @12:10AM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 09 2022, @12:10AM (#1211161) Journal
        Conversely, if they're already stealing the power and committing fraud, they're not going to stop because crypto-mining is illegal.
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday January 08 2022, @12:55PM (4 children)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Saturday January 08 2022, @12:55PM (#1211043)

    The first of many one blessed with the gift of common sense and decency would hope.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @01:31PM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @01:31PM (#1211047)

      people can be convinced. however it gets extremely difficult to eradicate crypto"currency" if people "producing" oil, gas, coal use their profits (in fiat currency, duh) to support (read: buy when coins are dropping) crypto"currency"... obviously they don't care what the energy "produced" is used for as long as more gets destro... errr ... used.
      funnily enough the above could also be a indicator how "contaminated" a government is by their respective local fossil fuel industry; a country government being lax or even careless towards crypto"currency" is probably one were government officials and local fossil fuel bigwigs regularly have lunch togethersssss ...
      combine the above with how supportive a government is towards decentralized renewable energy production and you got a sure fire way to determine if the country is actually fascism at its core (read: cheap or no support for renewables and a no-care attitude towards crypto"currency", points towards fascism)
      (*)fascism, a unholy marriage between industry and "elected" (law-making) government (to profit only a few)...

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday January 08 2022, @06:46PM (2 children)

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday January 08 2022, @06:46PM (#1211109) Journal
        Sorry, the government that interferes less in the economic activities of its citizens is not the more fascist one.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @01:59PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @01:59PM (#1211241)

          you're a moron! that's what i said.
          fascism is the unholy marriage of clubbermint and industry. they work for and pat each other on the back.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 09 2022, @05:06PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 09 2022, @05:06PM (#1211264) Journal

            fascism is the unholy marriage of clubbermint and industry.

            Nope. Plutarchy [thefreedictionary.com] is another sort of unholy marriage of government and industry that doesn't happen to be fascist.

            What's missing from your attempt at definition is the key point that Fascism is a totalitarian ideology. The state is supreme to everything with private industry existing, but being completely subservient to the whims of the state. Often definitions will go further and include some far right or racial components, but in my view, those aren't relevant to the definition.

            So, for example, I would consider both China and Russia to be more fascist than the entirety of the developed world.

            Moving on:

            you're a moron! that's what i said.

            Nope. Let's look at the money quote:

            however it gets extremely difficult to eradicate crypto"currency"

            Why would we ever want to eradicate cryptocurrency? Sorry, this is a classic example of government interference in the activities of its citizens. Your Orwellian attempt to equate defending peoples' choices to use cryptocurrencies and to mine them with fascism didn't go unnoticed.

            It's also worth noting that a lot of cryptocurrency activity goes on in places with low fossil fuel use (like the US Northwest or Iceland). It turns out that cheap electricity not fossil fuel powered electricity is the important factor in cryptocurrency mining.

  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @02:31PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 08 2022, @02:31PM (#1211055)

    In the middle of winter, how did Germany become less scientific rational-minded than France?
    https://www.plantservices.com/industrynews/2022/germany-closes-3-of-its-remaining-6-nuclear-power-plants/ [plantservices.com]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @12:30AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @12:30AM (#1211165)

      France's nuclear program is very safe. It has no Level 7 nuclear incidents [wikipedia.org] until it does. Is the assumption that the number of such incidents tends to 1 over time rational or irrational? Is a 30 meter tsunami foreseeable? Yes. Is an 8.0 European earthquake imaginable? Terrorist infiltration? Yes. Planned for? Planned for properly. What's "rational" when it comes to nuclear?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @03:30AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @03:30AM (#1211185)

        What's "rational" when it comes to nuclear?

        Not you, obviously.
        If you have a 30 metre tsunami a little bit of radiation is a minor problem. An 8.0 earthquake is survivable if the plant is properly built and located.
        And you forgot that if a mile wide asteroid hits a nuclear plant then the radioactive material will get scattered. Also, if the Sun goes nova then the increased neutron flux will trigger a meltdown.

  • (Score: 2) by istartedi on Saturday January 08 2022, @06:21PM

    by istartedi (123) on Saturday January 08 2022, @06:21PM (#1211103) Journal

    Crypto bros in 2012: We'll revolutionize finance and end the Fed.

    Crypto reality in 2022: We'll revolutionize Kazakhstan and end fuel subsidies.

    --
    Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by sorokin on Sunday January 09 2022, @01:17AM (1 child)

    by sorokin (187) on Sunday January 09 2022, @01:17AM (#1211170)

    Disclaimer: Russian here. Please note that having Russian ethnicity or nationality doesn't mean that the person support all decisions of Russian government or actions of Russian companies, but in this specific case I believe the allegation are just wrong and I have to speak up.

    Energy prices are skyrocketing across Europe for various reasons, including low supplies from Russia and high demand for natural gas as economies recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.
    The spike has been fuelled by geopolitical tensions with Russia, which supplies one third of Europe's gas. Russia has rejected European accusations that it has limited gas deliveries while tensions are raised

    At first it looks like the phrasing here implies that Russia somehow limited gas deliveries, but they are not specific here. I believe the lack of details here is intentional and these phrases are just FUD.

    The Gazprom (the largest natural gas producer in Russia, publicly traded company, 38,3% of shares owned by government) made a statement on this. They claim that for interval from 1st of January to 15th of November the deliveries of natural gas increased in 2021 by 8.3% compared to the same interval of 2020.[1] If we compare this to the previous years[2] it is still slightly lower than 2019, but higher that 2016. I believe this just disproves "low supplies from Russia" part of the quote. It is just wrong. Also in [3] Gasprom representative claims that Gasprom fulfilled all contracts it had in this year and they are happy to supply more. He also noted that France and Germany taken all what they ordered and don't order more. So the lack of deliveries is related to the lack of new orders.

    The second part "Russia has rejected European accusations that it has limited gas deliveries" is tricky. Consider this sentence: "Zuckerberg rejected accusations of being a pedophile". Technically both sentences are true: they do rejected the accusations, but the implications of the phrases are that these accusations have some ground. So technically true this phrase is misleading and I believe it is intentionally so.

    [1] https://www.vedomosti.ru/economics/news/2021/11/15/895915-rost-postavok [vedomosti.ru]
    [2] http://www.gazpromexport.ru/statistics/ [gazpromexport.ru]
    [3] https://www.rbc.ru/business/25/12/2021/61c761dc9a7947d38103c78c [www.rbc.ru]

    • (Score: 2) by owl on Sunday January 09 2022, @03:10AM

      by owl (15206) on Sunday January 09 2022, @03:10AM (#1211182)

      They claim that for interval from 1st of January to 15th of November the deliveries of natural gas increased in 2021 by 8.3% compared to the same interval of 2020.

      They are probably using the politician definition of a "budget cut" here to spin the narrative of "low supplies". Yes, real supply increased by 8.3% -- but the receiving end was expecting an increase of 16.6%, so the receiving end is being short-supplied by 8.3%.

      You can watch this all the time in political debates on budget items. Department X received 20M last year. Department X asked for 200M this year. Department X received an actual 100M this year. Opponents cry "politician X cut the budget of Department X by 100M", when in fact Department X is 80M richer than they were last year.

  • (Score: 2) by legont on Sunday January 09 2022, @07:16AM (1 child)

    by legont (4179) on Sunday January 09 2022, @07:16AM (#1211210)

    Look at any energy especially energy services index out there. They run after 2000, then crushed in 2008 than bounced and bleed, but in the end we are at 2000 level at this point. Nobody, except perhaps Russians, invested in energy for a fucking generation. Energy is an evil nowadays. It kills the planet... you know the story. It's in the same "rust belt fly over morons" category. Everybody wants into clean green high tech run on unicorns.
    Well, I am surprised it survived for 20+ years. Expect high prices, outages, severe shortages and painful 20 years of rebuilding. Forget about Teslas. Research how to make your car run on wood chips.

    --
    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @02:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 09 2022, @02:11PM (#1211243)

      you must be a unicorn if you believe this: "Everybody wants into clean green high tech run on unicorns."
      everybody and their grandma who think they're smart has invested in fossile energy, be it stocks or bonds, because "hey, we will rely on this shit forever".
      take-out food delivery? fossile fuel
      smelly flower bouquet door step delivery? fossile fuel
      not freezing to death in winter? fossile fuel
      10 hour airtravel to paris for overpriced gucci bag shopping spree? fossile fuel
      bitcoin mining money for nothing? fossile fuel
      gold-digger attractor bugatti veyron? you won't guess it ...

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