“What is perfectly clear is that there will be no gas embargo” for the moment, declared Monday April 4 on franceinfo Bernard Guetta, MEP of the Renaissance group (Renew Europe), while France and Germany have announced the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from their countries and that Westerners want to announce this week new economic sanctions against Russia.
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franceinfo: What other sanctions will be taken against Russia?
Bernard Guetta: What is perfectly clear is that there will be no gas embargo because several countries, not only Germany, but also Austria, to a very large extent Italy, are entirely dependent on Russian gas supplies. So there won’t be an immediate gas embargo, but it’s almost certain that there will be an embargo on oil and coal purchases from Russia. It is not nothing because the maximum of money which Russia makes with its exports of raw materials is on oil much more than on gas. So, we are going to touch the wallet, Mr Putin. What strikes me enormously is the unanimity that there is in the European Parliament on the fact that we must stop buying anything from Russia. If we do not stop gas purchases immediately, it is certain that within a few months we will also come to an embargo.
France and Germany have announced the mass expulsion of Russian diplomats from their countries. What do you think ?
In normal times, the intelligence services know very well who the spooks are in foreign embassies. We leave them because they are spotted, so you might as well keep an eye on them and not have any new ones. But there is a political signal to send. That’s why European capital after European capital, we come to these mass expulsions because these spooks we can no longer tolerate their presence in a political climate that is obviously completely different, especially after the revelations about the mass murders of civilians that the Russian army has committed around kyiv.
“In the European authorities, we no longer want to tolerate anything from Mr. Putin. There is a revolt, a disgust.”
Bernard Guetta, MEP from the Renaissance groupat franceinfo
Poland has denounced the attitude of Emmanuel Macron who sees Vladimir Putin as an interlocutor. What about?
I fully understand this statement by the Polish Prime Minister. He means by this that Mr Putin is not a man worthy of consideration. It is obvious. But there is another obvious fact, and that is that we have to maintain channels of communication with the Russian president, the Kremlin, as the Ukrainians do, quite simply because we have to try to find a possibility of a ceasefire -fire and compromise. That’s what pretty much everyone does today, even if it means picking up their phone to talk to the devil.