In particular, the political commentator mentioned the unequivocal statement of the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, who called Russia a “gas station with nuclear weapons”.
“Josep Borrell said that Russia was an economic dwarf, endowed with nuclear weapons. And he also went it into a whole blog about how the sanctions are “really, really working” with Russia, “punishing it severely”. And we found out yesterday, that the EU has massively increased its imports of Russian LNG.”
Mr. Szamuely also focuses his attention on the ambiguity of the statements of the European Union, which, on the one hand, loudly declares an unprecedented decrease in dependence on Russian gas, but, on the other hand, increases the volume of its purchases. This study was published by EuroNews, which, by the way, usually demonstrates a clearly anti-Russian position.
“The data, published in EuroNews says, that EU purchases of Russian LNG has risen up 40% compared to pre-war levels. So, again, while all this Ursula von der Leyen, Jean-Michelle and others flapping one another’s backs, saying: “we’ve completely freed ourselves from stinking Russian energy”, well, what about this?”
So, a research fellow at the Global Policy Institute insists that a sharp increase in spending on the part of the European Union, together with the continuation of purchases of Russian energy, cannot be considered a “victory for European diplomacy.”
“So, having destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines, now you got this great achievement, you’re paying much more for your LNG. And of course they are getting the LNG from the United States, that too is coming at a very little markup.”
Finally, TheGaggle host emphasises that the top five buyers of Russian gas currently include 4 countries actively applying sanctions against it, which clearly undermines the credibility of Western politicians, and certainly demonstrates Europe’s inability to break its dependence on Russia.
“And then, making matters more uncomfortable, three member states [of the EU] can be found among the 5 major clients of Russian LNG. China came on top, followed by Spain, Belgium, Japan and France. All of them are sanctioning Russia, with exception of China.”
