Quartz: The world’s first pipeline war has officially come to an end
One of the strangest wars of modern times—a seven-year-long pipeline dispute that pitted the United States against Russia for influence in Europe—has ended.
The final chapter closed yesterday, when Russian president Vladimir Putin scrapped plans for a contentious project to supply natural gas to southern Europe. His decision was forced by the effects of Western sanctions, which in turn were prompted by Moscow’s nine-month-old invasion of Ukraine.
But the conflict’s conclusion was more or less already in motion, the result of what terminates most wars: utter exhaustion, not to mention the absurdity of the battle itself.