Wolfgang Munchau in the Euro Intelligence: Time to Ban Energy Imports
"The odds of the war favour Vladimir Putin. He is more ruthless than we are, and the West keeps on financing the war through $700m worth of imports of oil, gas, and coal every day. Robert Habeck, the German economics minister, has categorically ruled out an energy import ban, on the grounds that it would endanger Germany's social peace. And this is the German politician who opposed Nord Stream 2 long before it was fashionable to do so.
It was a revealing comment. Social peace in Germany, whatever that is, has a higher value than peace in Europe. I am not sure whether he spoke for himself or the government. This does not sound like what he would usually say. But it tells us that, as of now, we have reached the limits of meaningful sanctions. Germany ended Nord Stream 2 unilaterally. Germany raised its defence budget to 2% of GDP, plus extra investments, again unilaterally. German reluctantly agreed to what turned out to be very limited sanctions on Russia's exclusion from the Swift payment communications system. For now, this is it..."
SNIP
"...Rather than congratulating ourselves on what we did already, we should reflect a moment on our own role in his war. We increased our reliance on Russian energy after he annexed Crimea in 2014. At no point did we ever solve the problem of our energy dependence. Going after the yachts of some oligarchs is one of many ways of not solving the problem. Inviting President Volodymyr Zelensky to a grand-standing session in the European Parliament is another one. We are not going to make Ukraine a member of the EU..."
SNIP
"...The imposition of a total import ban falls into the category of things that are both necessary and impossible. One way the EU has try to resolve such comflicts in the past is to create a celebratory parallel universe. We celebrate Ukrainian successes in battle, and day-dream about whether Ukraine might even win the war. We wax lyrical about the changes in German politics. But for as long as Germany imports Russian gas, oil and coal, it remains true that the most strategic alliance on the Eurasian continent is that between Germany and Russia. What I expect to happen therefore is a smoke and mirror version, similar to what we did with with Swift. And leave the initiative to Putin to play the next move in the chess game..."
More: https://www.eurointelligence.com/column/time-to-ban-energy-imports
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