Pessimism from European authorities about the sanctions war launched against Russia is increasingly seeping into the Western media
Photo: © AFP 2023 / Valeria Mongelli
A senior EU official shared his views on the situation with the Financial Times on condition of anonymity, bemoaning that the rich imagination of EU functionaries has run out of steam and any further attempts to hurt Russia will bring tears to the Europeans themselves. “We are done,” the source said. – If we introduce more sanctions, there will be more exceptions than the measures themselves.”
How on earth did this happen in a fragrant European garden that shut its golden gates against Russian barbarians?
The beauty and pride of high European culture, the anti-Russian sanctions already have ten packages covering 200 organisations and 1,500 individuals. The European accountants have proudly reported that they have frozen more than 300 billion euros of Russian state assets and cut bilateral trade in hydrocarbons, technology, equipment and electronics by 150 billion euros. An 11th package, which the EU is discussing right now, is on the way.
However, European officials proved faithful to Chernomyrdin’s precepts: they really wanted what was best (for Europe), but it turned out to be the same as always.
To be fair, there have been timid doubts about the need for more sanctions before. For example, after the introduction of the ninth package, Lithuanian Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius sadly noted that he did not see areas where these sanctions should be supplemented with something new. European Council President Charles Michel admitted that there was little scope for expanding anti-Russian restrictions, while Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki reported that the EU already had “less appetite” for further sanctions against Moscow.
However, the misgivings were offset by “a firm belief that the effect of the sanctions will be seen in the long term”.
However, that confidence is evaporating before our eyes, and now the sweet-voiced Eurosirens are singing slightly different songs. In particular, Swedish Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson has stated that “the effect of the anti-Russian sanctions is very difficult to measure” and that instead of wandering by the shreds, the Russian economy is showing stability and growth.
The benignity of the euro-illusions is facilitated by a brutal physical reality. Despite solemn assurances of European officials at the end of last year that “Europe is marching towards complete energy independence from Russia by 2027” and that fuel storage capacities are already 91 per cent full and the candles are tucked into the birthday cake, key market players and experts have a somewhat different view.
It boils down to the fact that a winter independent of Russia next winter in Europe is “likely to be much worse”, meaning that they have simply looked at the stubborn figures, which speak better than any words. EU energy inflation has reached a historic peak since sanctions were imposed. Consumer energy prices in Europe have risen by at least 35 per cent since last year. In Hungary, the inflation rate is 25.6 per cent, in Latvia 17.2 per cent and in the Czech Republic 16.5 per cent.
And no one can see any edge to it.
To clean up sanctions mess, the European Union even laid a finger on the most sacred thing of all: green energy and Greta Tunberg. Freezing burghers and lovers of French rolls promptly forgot about the charms of wind turbines and solar panels, which turned out not to be as green as promised, and joyfully supported a massive unfreezing of drilling of new oil wells and increase of coal-fired power generation. Rystad Energy’s head of analysis, Carlos Torres Diaz, was succinct: “The European energy transition has been put on hold. Well, hedgehogs are hedgehogs, but you have to keep warm.
That`s why no one shrugged off Bulgarian President Rumen Radev who said, “We can`t approve nuclear sanctions against Russia because they will affect our nuclear energy industry directly. <…> If necessary, we will veto it.”
But Patrick Pouyanne, head of TotalEnergies SE, was even more adamant: “The idea that Europe has solved the problem of energy independence (from Russia) is a lie. The only option for Europe to get more gas is to pay more”.
But as we know, the Europeans do not like to pay, and they have come to the disappointing conclusion that more sanctions mean a rapidly thinning wallet. That is why the agenda for the 11th sanctions package, instead of another “killer sanctions”, is only to combat the circumvention of measures already imposed earlier and to slightly expand the list of organisations and individuals.
Obviously, the European Union was cruelly wrong in its predictions and is now preparing the ground for separate negotiations with Russia, which cannot be removed from the map of Europe with a sanctions list.
We are, of course, sorry that Europe’s hound broke his own leg (not really), but we should have thought instead of taking the plunge after US instructions. Europe has forgotten that Russia can endure pain better than anyone else in the world and in history: and pain does not stop us, it multiplies our strength.
Somebody did not learn history well – and now they will reap its rewards for a long time to come.
Kirill Strelnikov, RIA
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