Business

EU has ‘sanctioned itself’ into fuel poverty or worse – UK ex-diplomat — Analysis

Europe can’t replace Russian oil and gas supplies, no matter how much the US and Qatar pony up

The European Union might have caused more damage than Moscow by sanctioning Russia for its aggression on Ukraine, a former European diplomat Alastair Crooke explained to RT.

NATO’s economic attack on Russia has split world powers into “two separate spheres,” Crooke explained on RT’s ‘Going Underground’ on Saturday. Crooke argued that Russia’s sanctions have decoupled the commodity price from the US Dollar. Europe is making the wrong decision by jumping to inflict sanctions on Russia without having a back-up source of fuel.

“In many ways, Europe has not sanctioned Russia, it has sanctioned itself,” Crooke pointed out, saying that the conflict is being funded by the $100 billion worth of European funds sent previously to Moscow to fuel. “cannot get gas from anywhere else that will substitute for Russian gas.” By cutting itself off without lining up a backup, the continent has signed its own death warrant, as Europeans will have a difficult time surviving under double-digit inflation without critical (now-sanctioned) commodities like fertilizer and certain types of food, he continued.

LEARN MORE
Anti-Russian sanctions don’t work – Poland

“I don’t see any sign that Europeans gave any thought to the strategic consequences of what they were doing,” Crooke observed, suggesting the “fervor” to take down Russia had eclipsed its common sense. The EU gets 40% of its gas from Russia, while the US’ offer of liquefied natural gas will only cover 4% of its needs and Qatar cannot supply the remainder.

“They go into these things without any thinking and they suddenly say ‘we’re going to divest ourselves from any reliance on Russian oil or gas within the year’ – How?” Crooke was incredulous and marveled at the inability of Russia to demand payments for gas it purchased in rubles. “People are going to feel a huge amount of pain … gas and electricity have gone up 50%, they’ll probably go up another 100% before the end of this year. How are people going to survive with this?”

This story can be shared on social media

[ad_2]

Tags

Related Articles

Back to top button