While the European Union is still considering a possible embargo on Russian energy to protest against the war in Ukraine, Nathalie Loiseau, MEP En Marche, puts forward a financial argument on franceinfo: “You should know that every day, we Europeans pay hundreds of millions of dollars to Russia by paying for its oil and gas. We must stop financing Vladimir Putin’s war chest”. An exact statement, according to the estimates of a research institute.
Since the start of the war more than two months ago, Europe has paid 48 billion euros to Moscow for supplies of gas, oil and coal. This was calculated by the CREA, the energy research center, which is based on multiple indicators such as traffic in European gas pipelines or maritime transport. If we divide this sum of 48 billion euros by the number of days since the beginning of the Russian offensive, we arrive at almost 700 million euros paid on average each day to Russia.
For its part, France paid around four billion euros. Seen from Russia, we are the 6th importing country, quite far behind the Netherlands, Italy and Germany, which has spent more than double: nine billion euros over the past two months. Even if China imports much more Russian energy since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Europe remains, by far, the first customer since according to the CREA more than 70% of the fossil incomes of Russia come from the European Union.
Despite everything, dependence on Russian energy is declining a little in Europe. For example Germany, which is very dependent, says it has succeeded in reducing this trend, particularly for coal and oil. Another indicator: the volume of Gazprom’s exports. The Russian giant saw its deliveries collapse by almost 30% in Europe in the first quarter. A drop partly offset by liquefied natural gas, LNG, imported in particular from the United States.
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