I feel like I’m missing something here. US doing that would have made them much stronger against China. I mean just imagine how much more robust the European economy would be if all the gas going to China was going right to Europe.
Though in typing that out I may have answered my own question. Is it really just because US wanted to European market to themselves? This seems incredibly short sighted.
Something about turning Russia into a giant neocolonial puppet state for resource and cheap labor exploitation, balkanized or not. Also something regarding not wanting Russia having influence over the western parts of Europe (mainly because between US and Russia, two large countries, pragmatically, you choose the large country closer to you, Russia in this case).