@kravietz perhaps, to demonstrate that EU cares about its members problems and to be able officially inspect the pipeline and document the damage, because Hungary and Slovakia doesn’t believe Ukraine alone. Ofc there is no guarantee this pipeline will not be damaged by Russia again after repair.

@hanse_mina the problem is that the US and Israel believe that w/o military pressure Iran isn’t ready for serious diplomacy negotiations. And now is a favorable time for an attack, as the allies can’t provide meaningful assistance to Iran. Probably, the EU will decide to help the US to influence the situation in the Strait, but indirectly. Or EU will have to look for some fantastic way to protect shipping, for example, to depict saints revered in Iran on tankers.

@ErikJonker @geopolitics not sure, perhaps Trump just wants to show his allies in the region, that despite of the fact that high energy prices are in favor of the US it wasn’t the reason why the US attacked Iran and that he takes everything possible to lower the prices.

@timkmak in Orban’s mind, Ukraine is a threat (as well as the EU with plans to help Ukraine) and Russia is the savior of the Hungarian economy. In reality, the main threat to the Hungarian economy is probably Orban himself, because he is supporting an economy that is profitable and depends on the supply of cheap resources from Russia. Obviously, Orban will say and do everything possible to stay in power, and Ukraine is the easiest target around that can be blamed.

@ukraine on the one hand, such sanctions relief is good for the Russian economy in the short term. On the other hand, Iran attacks neighboring states and makes it difficult for them to export oil. These states are probably not happy about the sanctions relief and may start to think that Russia is coordinating such behavior of Iran in order to increase its income by reducing the income of Iran’s neighboring states.