EU traded off massive inflation for independence from Russian fossil fuels. A victory for politicians, not so much for the Otto Normalverbraucher.
I prefer my government not to be profit-driven sociopaths, thanks.
EU achieved independence from Russian fossil fuels
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Re: EU achieved independence from Russian fossil fuels
#22EU traded off massive inflation for independence from Russian fossil fuels. A victory for politicians, not so much for the Otto Normalverbraucher.
Fossil fuel prices in Europe are actually back to pre-war levels. (Nevertheless, inflation is still rather high but that seems unrelated to energy now.)
Re: EU achieved independence from Russian fossil fuels
#23I can achieve independence from food.
Question is: at what cost?
Re: EU achieved independence from Russian fossil fuels
#24EU continues to important Russian oil, it has just been refined and rebadged by India, Saudi Arabia, China and others, so that a statement like this could be made. EU is basically paying a premium in order to stake a claim to moral high ground they don't hold
>"EU is basically paying a premium in order to stake a claim to moral high ground they don't hold"
They may or may not be paying a premium, but it has nothing to do with "moral high ground".
Its to do with not giving the regional agressor leverage over your economy. The war between Russia and Ukraine exists in the military domain, the war between Europe and Russia is currently in the economic domain. Even if sanctions only shifted the supply chain to add middlemen, it prevents Russia from having direct control on energy supplies in Europe, which improves Europe's (and Ukraine's) strategic position.
Ukraine and Europe are defending their homes and people from a military/economic/political threat, an imperialist threat, and you think this is about "moral high ground"?
Re: EU achieved independence from Russian fossil fuels
#25If we could just convince India to boycott Russian Oil as well, the regime would crumble, no ? https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65553920
Russian crude is primarily procured by Nayara Energy who refine it and export it to the EU. Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum who supply the domestic market don't buy Russian crude in significant quantities.
Cutting off the third largest producer of crude in the world is going to spike prices globally. Nobody is interested in that: not the US, not the EU and certainly not India. The Saudis would love that though.
Re: EU achieved independence from Russian fossil fuels
#26[dead]
Re: EU achieved independence from Russian fossil fuels
#27What about the countries buying up Russian gas an reselling it to EU countries? Did they stop that or have those countries just gotten smarter in hiding the origins of the gas?
EU never put any sanctions against Russian gas. The only reason why EU stopped buying it is because of Putin genious attempt to freeze EU by blocking gas exports.
Re: EU achieved independence from Russian fossil fuels
#28EU traded off massive inflation for independence from Russian fossil fuels. A victory for politicians, not so much for the Otto Normalverbraucher.
So do you suggest throwing Ukraine under the bus for cheap energy?
Let's rephrase "throwing Ukraine under a bus" as "not getting involved in a border dispute between two Eastern European countries", and maybe the answer is less obvious.
Re: EU achieved independence from Russian fossil fuels
#29If we could just convince India to boycott Russian Oil as well, the regime would crumble, no ? https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65553920
That's not really the intention behind the price caps. Unfortunately world is still quite dependent on Russian oil and removing it from the market would cause a significant price rise which might cause (political) problems for the western countries (and all other non-producing nations as well of course).
Re: EU achieved independence from Russian fossil fuels
#30EU traded off massive inflation for independence from Russian fossil fuels. A victory for politicians, not so much for the Otto Normalverbraucher.
A "victory for politicians"?
Some of us think it was a victory for world civilization.