Congratulations to the participants of the meeting!
I am very glad to see everyone alive and well, this is extremely important in times of aggression against Ukraine.
I will say the banal truth that russian aggression against our country would be impossible without huge revenues that our northern neighbor has received, is receiving and will continue to receive, unfortunately, at least in the near future from energy sales.
That is why we sincerely welcome any steps taken by the EU members to impose restrictions on the purchase of gas, oil and coal, up to a full embargo. Of course, we are very hurt that after all the deaths of civilians, we need to deal with maniacs who run a monopoly northern state.
On the other hand, we have be realistic, and also understand that it’s not always possible to immediately stop buying russian resources. And in this case, we have clearly understand the reasons for the lack of such steps, or their very slow implementation.
This can be as a large gas consumption, which can’t be quickly replaced by other sources, the focus of energy-intensive industries on a stable and cheap resource. In this case, there is no other way out but to change the resource to a more expensive, but at the same time more stable. Yes, this will lead to a slowdown in growth, and possibly to partial stagnation in these industries. But what is the alternative? Dependence on an insane supplier, which, as we see, can interrupt the supply at any time?
And there may be other reasons, the worst of which is political. Unfortunately, we still have European leaders who explicitly or implicitly support Russia’s aggression. It’s therefore not surprising that these European countries are opposed to the embargo.
What to do with it? In my opinion, this requires a consolidated position of the entire European Union, at least in terms of buying of strategic gas reserves, determined for each country. This approach will significantly reduce Gazprom’s chances of dictating its terms by negotiating with each country.
We have also not forget about the technological aspect. Using gas as a weapon can be achieved, and we believe it will be the opposite in the near future. EU consumption will be redirected to other sources, and will there be such an opportunity for energy production in Russia?
The ideal option for the EU is to diversify supplies, without Russian sources.
In my opinion, this is quite an achievable goal.
