EVERYTHING IS STUPID: The Sanctions Blowback From the EU Begins.

In other words, the sanctions are effectively a done deal, even if they are not official law just yet. Opponents of the bill can read the writing on the wall—and they are already making moves to retaliate. On Friday morning, Moscow pulled the trigger on what it hinted could be the first of many retaliatory measures.

Moscow’s reaction here is predictable enough; the Russians have been threatening a version of this move ever since the Obama administration kicked out Russian diplomats and seized Russian diplomatic compounds back in December. With the Trump administration unable or unwilling to release those facilities, and a new slate of sanctions on the way, the time was clearly ripe for the Russians to express their displeasure with Washington.

But it’s not just the Russians who are upset with the sanctions. As we wrote last month, Germany and Austria have fumed that the sanctions threaten European energy interests, by targeting (among other European-Russian ventures) the Gazprom co-financed Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany. For the bill’s European enemies—among them the Netherlands and France, who have been quieter in their opposition than Germany—the sanctions are a thinly veiled excuse to promote American LNG exports and meddle in the European energy market. And top German business leaders are already mulling retaliation. . . . The new sanctions bill may well achieve Congress’s goals of imposing costs on Moscow and limiting Trump’s flexibility on Russia. Still, it perversely could have given Putin some common ground with Europeans, and could lead to bigger headaches down the road than anyone bargained for.

All driven by a bogus “collusion” panic. Sigh.