Energy Efficiency Is Our Greatest Weapon Against Putin
Europe’s dependence on Russian gas is financing Putin’s war.
It is a common refrain for Western pundits to characterize Russia’s war on Ukraine as unprovoked. Even if we admit that to be true, we also have to admit that Europe finances Putin’s war when they buy Russia’s gas. Russia is using that dependence as leverage. From Naked Capitalism:
“…the West has seized a few yachts from Putin’s cronies, stopped serving Big Macs in Red Square, and slapped sanctions on everything except the one thing that really matters. With Russia supplying 40% of its gas and collecting an estimated $850 million daily, Europe is, in effect, funding its own invasion.”
Despite all the sanctions and the efforts to deprive Russia of new money, Russia still earns the better part of $1 billion a day from sales of natural gas to Europe alone. Russia doesn’t really care if that money takes the form of euros, dollars, or roubles. They’re still selling gas to Europe.
Joe Biden has mocked the rouble as “rubble”, but he can’t deny the people living in Europe of the natural gas they need to stay warm. That’s leverage. One thing we could do to deny Russia the leverage they need to pursue the war: Europe could reduce its dependence on Russia’s gas through a European…
