As far as *direct* military value, yeah, I agree - but anything that makes the RF less able to fight and spreads the pain to the RF population in general which theoretically should destabilize things a bit - but the USSR was called the 'prison of nations' so they've got systems for 'keeping the serfs in place'.

For me, they mystery is why the pipeline didn't suffer an 'accident' somewhere on Ukranian territory...