"-maintain control of its gas pipelines that cross the Ukraine and supply EC countries including Germany with gas."
Russia completed pipelines north and south of Ukraine, so they can cut off Ukraine while still supply Europe or vice versa.
"The US hawks will likely be viewing Europe as a customer for its natural gas exports."
Not even remotely possible, no idea why media and politicians even put this across as a option.
Russia supplies Europe with something like 500 billion cubic meters of gas a day.
There just isn't the infrastructure in terminals on both sides of teh Atlantic or ships for the US to supply anywhere near that amount of LNG. It would cost billions and take years to increase capacity.
The extra cost would make US gas approx 40% more expensive than gas from Norway/Russia/Middle East. It would cost billions and take years to increase capacity.
