Towards a new toughening of sanctions? Among the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis is still at the heart of negotiations in Europe and Russia. This Monday, May 2, the energy ministers of the European Union meet again in Brussels in extraordinary session to examine the means of dealing with the blackmail of Vladimir Putin.
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Since the beginning of April, the Russian president has demanded that Russian gas be paid for no longer in euros but in rubles. Otherwise, the Kremlin threatens to cut off the tap. Because by cutting off the gas tap to Poland and Bulgaria, Valdimir Putin has raised the stakes, like a poker player betting on the dependence of certain countries like Germany or Austria on Russian imports.
For Thomas Pellerin-Cardin, director of the Energy Center of the Jacques Delors Institute, European countries will have no choice but to anticipate the end of Russian gas: “After Poland, after Bulgaria, who will be next on the list? Will it be Germany? Will it be France or Italy? And so, we Europeans have to prepare for it, act as if this embargo was inevitable, so as to be ready for the day when Putin, in fact, cuts off the gas. The day when we will choose not to depend on Russian gas to no longer finance the war that Vladimir Putin is waging in Ukraine.“
In the meantime, some European companies would pay for their imports of Russian gas in euros before being converted into rubles by the energy giant Gazprom, continues Thomas Pellerin Cardin.
“There is a desire to be able to continue to buy Russian gas whatever the cost, from several European companies that import gas. Germany is no exception at all. The Austrians and also the French, probably not. At this stage, it is not known which companies pay for this gas in rubles. The only person who knows is Putin. It’s not the European Commission, it’s not the President of the French Republic.”
The master of the Kremlin thus hopes to keep the trump card of gas as long as possible against the Europeans. However, even before this meeting scheduled for Monday in Brussels, European sources quoted by AFP warn that the European Union is finalizing a gradual cessation of its purchases of oil and petroleum products from Russia to sanction the war in Ukraine and could announce this week a calendar and new measures
Sunday, the giant Gazprom also announced that thes Russian gas deliveries to EU countries and Turkey fell sharply between January and April compared to this same period in 2021, while those to China soared, climbing 60% year on year via the pipeline Power of Siberia.