You do understand there are "existing" gas pipelines running through Ukraine and Poland, right?
lol
The objective of building Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, was to replace these existing pipelines!!!
The Russian were essentially sick of paying exorbitant transit fees to these Ukrainian and Polish Oligarchs - you do understand that, right?
And having Nord 1 and 2, was going to cut off the middlemen - ie Ukraine and Poland, and that's why they lobbied so hard to both US and Germany to stop Nord 2. And (IMHO) one of the reasons behind this current crisis (Oligarchs don't like losing their gravy trains).
