The energy side of the Ukrainian scandal really needs to be investigated more.
You have:
- Rick Perry, Secretary of Energy, due to his bona fides with O&G lobbyists
- Burisma, Ukrainian energy company that produces natural gas
-Naftogaz, Ukrainian gas company, that transmits natural gas - mostly Russian natural gas that they get a fee for - about $3B per year.
- Firtash, who made his billions on trading Russian natural gas at discounted rates from Putin. He's the money behind Lev and Igor.
- Nord Stream II - a gas pipe line from Russia to Germany that will soon be completed. It will allow Russia to bypass Ukraine in transmitting gas to Europe.
-Turk Stream - similar to Nordstream, but through Turkey/Black Sea and a ways off.
This is a swamp gas soap opera.
The US has an interest in stopping the Nordstream 2 because it's a good sanction against Russia, and because it opens up LNG markets to Ukraine and the rest of Europe. Zelensky wants to stop the pipeline because it will take a large chunk of money out of Ukraine, and make Ukraine less important strategically to the rest of Europe. Russia, Germany, and France want it. Trump could have taken action to stop it - or at least slow it - through sanctions. Maybe he wasn't due to his love of Putin or because he was holding it out as leverage on Ukraine. (The last part seems less likely, as his hard-on for Ukraine is relatively recent, while the pipeline has been in the works for years.) Congress attached anti-Nord stream sanctions to the NDAA bill, that was just advanced yesterday.