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Europe prepares for a winter without Russian gas

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Europe prepares for a winter without Russian gas

The first winter will be the hardest and every winter after this one will be so much easier with less nations relying on Russian resources.

Older dwellings that covered up their fire places long ago will uncover them and use wood for heating in the short term. They will survive and they will find alternatives to Russia. Shipping LNG long distance from increased Australian production and other producers will help Europe wean itself off Russia. As China buys more from Russia it will need less from Australia who will divert supplies to Europe just as one example.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Ask anyone in the Frontline states with Russia if the trust Putin.

He is an outrageous bully.

Now yeah he has a big big bargaining chip with his gas and oil but most Europeans would prefer to boycott his supplies as a result.

It's not going to be easy.

But the consequences of appeasing this dictator would be worse.

It's called having principles.

6 ( +10 / -4 )

Redstorm,Where are Europe gonna get their fuel of all sources,I stay close to where 80; percent of the fuel is produce in the US,you do not need natural gas to cook,LNG is natural gas that has been chilled and turned to liguid,and will be turned back to gas, most gas from Russia is not LNG

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

European governments are mainly to blame for this fiasco by pursuing rescrewables at the expense of affordable and reliable energy supplies. All Putin did was bring forward the day of reckoning.

Ludicrous, you really haven't thought that through. If they had less renewables they would have less alternative sources of energy than Soviet carbons.

The logical answer is that if they had even more renewable energy sources they would be less dependant on criminal nations like Russia. Europe is moving towards this, Putin is just providing an added incentive to do it quicker.

The hope is that in years to come every nation (possibly every household) will be able to provide its own energy needs and can happily make lunatics like Putin irrelevant.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Right - accept our invasion and surrender your freedom - that's the only offer Putin has ever made...

Wrong. The Russian demands are simple.... an end to the abuse of the population of Dombass and neutrality for the Ukraine. Afaic, that is reasonable.

Wrong. Putin already invaded and unlawfully annexed Crimea in 2014 - he thought he could do it again in 2022, and throw NATO into disarray....hasn't quite worked out like that, has it....just ask Finland and Sweden...and the sailors on the Moskva - those that are left...

I wonder on what basis you form your opinions..... context-less news headlines only?

We know where you form your opinions...with propaganda handed to you from Putin's Potemkin Village...

5 ( +12 / -7 )

Wrong. The Russian demands are simple.... an end to the abuse of the population of Dombass and neutrality for the Ukraine. Afaic, that is reasonable.

Russia doesn't have the right to demand anything. Also, this ahistorical account fails to take into consideration how Russia actively fueled separatist sentiment in eastern Ukraine. If they were worried about violence, they shouldn't have funded terrorist activities there.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

.including the Dombass, where the population is ethnic Russian and has been bombed and abused by the Zelenski regime since 2014? Seriously?

The Zelensky 'regime' has been bombing and abusing the Donbass since 2014? Seriously? The 'regime' led by the President who wasn't even elected to government until 2019 and who on being elected immediately got to work on a road map intended to end the war with the russian-backed separatists, calling for local elections in the occupied parts of the area and its recognition as a special autonomous region? That Zelensky?

Zelensky's Servant of the People Party did not have the supermajority needed to rewrite the constitution in order to grant the Donbass region autonomous status. It was the opposition parties who opposed any negotiation, opposed changing the constitution, opposed granting autonomy in any form.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/11/zelensky-pushes-peace-deal-ukraine-war-russia-donbass-steinmeier-formula/

5 ( +11 / -6 )

Redstorm,we got plenty of natural gas in Texas,I do not use natural gas,I used electricity to heat and cook,most new house have all electric appliances

-10 ( +2 / -12 )

Yep posters here really don’t care about Europe having heat as long as they can virtue signal from warm homes where they live.

This is pretty rich from the “I got mine screw everyone else” poster.

7 ( +11 / -4 )

Europe prepares for a winter without Russian gas

The Swiss police chief is already warning of “unrest” due to the lack of fuel cuz the support of Americas proxy war. Folks in the UK abandoning their pets. It’s only gonna get worse. Support NATO and be happy with your frostbite.

-10 ( +5 / -15 )

the usual suspects blaming Europe for placing sanctions on Russia. but no blame on Russia for their invasion & subsequent war crimes against ukraines civilians

7 ( +13 / -6 )

Redstorm

Today 06:15 pm JST

Yrral

> Redstorm, Gas prices are dropping in the US,by an dollar a gallon

> You are confusing the gas you put in your car with LNG.

Wow!

I hadn't checked that out until you pointed it out! Ouch!

$4.3556 USD/Mmbtu Feb 22 2022

$9.4344 USD/Mmbtu today

That is quite an increase

-12 ( +4 / -16 )

Funny how so many here don't want to stay on topic.

The topic is oil/gas as a weapon and how Europe seems surprised at that fact acting like this is the first time such a thing has happened.

It isn't, oil embargoes have a long history as a weapon, and the fact it comes as a sudden surprise to so many is strange.

No it is not and article of who is right, it is not and article on children, etc ..if you want to divert attention keep trying but the reality and article are on how is Europe going to deal with the inevitable fuel shortages this winter.

It is also about whether the people in those countries will accept the pain or rise up against their governments in elections, etc...

If the situation gets bad will these countries accept sending fuel to Ukraine or decide to keep it for their own people.

-10 ( +5 / -15 )

lincolnman

Right - accept our invasion and surrender your freedom - that's the only offer Putin has ever made...

Wrong. The Russian demands are simple.... an end to the abuse of the population of Dombass and neutrality for the Ukraine. Afaic, that is reasonable.

I wonder on what basis you form your opinions..... context-less news headlines only?

-7 ( +5 / -12 )

Jonathan Prin

You should read more about history of following countries regarding Russia :

Finland

Baltic countries : Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania

Poland (if you did not know before, that would unacceptable)

Georgia

Moldova

Czechoslovakia

Are you confusing the Sowjet Union and Russia? In that case, you might want to read up on the Baker-Gorbachew agreement. ("Nato will not expland 1 m into Eastern Europe"... can you remind us what happened since then?

-8 ( +5 / -13 )

Bewildered enough to still ignore that Russia is bombing children.

Russia is not "bombing children".

Sure, and the Moskva never sunk and is in port at St Petersberg today...

Of course, civilians suffer from the war, but this could and should have solved by negotion long ago.

Right - accept our invasion and surrender your freedom - that's the only offer Putin has ever made...

The Russian demands are not unreasonable.

That sounds like Hitler talking about his invasion of Poland and France...

By prolonging this proxy war, Western leaders are only creating more victims.

The fact that every far-right Russian-supporter refuses to face. This war would be over immediately if Putin ordered all his forces in Ukraine, the Donbas, and Crimea back to Russia...

Of course he won't so that - his vanity and all...

3 ( +11 / -8 )

Families are suffering, the environment is suffering.

Indeed, Putin's war has killed thousands in Ukraine and made many thousands more houseless. And Putin's supporters justify the suffering Putin has caused because according to them Putin and maybe some of his generals and oligarchs have gotten even richer because of the Putin war. Putin's a war-profiteer, the Daddy Warbucks of this era. Warmongering is good for the ruling caste. The new world order with Russia/China and Iran in charge is little different from the US led era, and the medieval era.

3 ( +10 / -7 )

Welcome to the facts not feelings

No.

You are trying to justify war and I am not.

So you have to try and talk about oil instead of dead kids.

2 ( +10 / -8 )

Jonathan Prin

Today 05:47 pm JST

Poor Jonathan.

We are talking about fuel aka oil as a weapon.

I am not here to debate how bad Russia is.

If you have some evidence that fuel/oil wasnt a weapon in the past modern warfare then I am willing to listen.

But not rants on how bad Russia is because that isn't to topic.

So simple question is oil/gas a weapon used in past and present war?

-7 ( +6 / -13 )

Bob Fosse

Today 05:37 pm JST

I am still at the point of bewildered that so many are surprised, shocked, angry that Russia is using fuel/energy as a weapon.

> Bewildered enough to still ignore that Russia is bombing children.

> How many are acceptable before you ‘drive out the nazis’?

You trying to confuse facts and feelings doesn't change the facts.

No one cared about the tens of thousands dead children in other wars going on now.

The fact children are dying in Ukraine will not change the fact that Energy is a weapon and will not change the fact that our leaders seemed oblivious or at the least disingenuous in their surprise that Russia is using gas and oil as a weapon.

We can debate all day long who is right or who is wrong at this point it is irrelevant other than feelings.

Fuel is a weapon it has been a weapon in war for at least the past 100 years and to have not thought about it before the sanctions was total incompetence on the part of western leaders.

Again at this point it doesn't matter it Putin is the devil himself the problem is how will Europe not freeze this winter and simultaneously supply Ukraine and the Ukrainian military with fuel.

Welcome to the facts not feelings

-6 ( +7 / -13 )

 Russia is capable of fighting this "cold war" due to strong support from Asia, and it may be that Europe/West is the worst affected.

This is an interesting point however:

There simply is not the infrastructure to send all that gas to India and China. No matter how willing and able they are to purchase/look the other way/ sell Ukraine down the river (take your pick) Getting the gas from A to B (B being "Asia") requires existing infrastructure in the form of pipelines that do not appear over night. My understanding is that such infrastructure just does not exist to ship the amount of gas necessary to offset the lost of European markets.

Moreover, to the extent that they are buying Russian petrolium products, both India and China are very price sensitive and are negotiating very favorable terms as both countries know they have the Russians (pardon the pun) over a barrel.

In short, any sales to Asia in no way make up for sales lost to Europe and while Europe is going to feel pain, Russian pain is likely to be worse although it may not be immediately apparent.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

cleo

Ukraine is right to demand the muscovites get out of Ukraine. All of Ukraine.

...including the Dombass, where the population is ethnic Russian and has been bombed and abused by the Zelenski regime since 2014? Seriously?

-6 ( +6 / -12 )

@antiquesaving

You should read more about history of following countries regarding Russia :

Finland

Baltic countries : Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania

Poland (if you did not know before, that would unacceptable)

Georgia

Moldova

Czechoslovakia

They have been bullied by that country, or just sometimes obliterated.

Those countries never attacked Russia.

9 ( +15 / -6 )

Bob Fosse

Bewildered enough to still ignore that Russia is bombing children.

Russia is not "bombing children". Of course, civilians suffer from the war, but this could and should have solved by negotion long ago. The Russian demands are not unreasonable.

By prolonging this proxy war, Western leaders are only creating more victims.

-7 ( +7 / -14 )

Europe prepares for a winter without Russian gas

The virtue-signalling EU politicians brought that upon themselves. They seriously thought they could bully a major ressource supplier that they depend upon in the same way that they have been bullying small, defenseless countries. A kindergartner could have told them that does not work. I feel sorry for the EU populations that have to suffer from this. Hopefully, some major regime changes are coming in Europe.

-5 ( +6 / -11 )

@Antiquesaving

> Sorry this time you are wrong. I noticed the price of gas was already skyrocketing 2021.

> https://fsr.eui.eu/skyrocketing-energy-prices/

> https://www.statista.com/statistics/673333/monthly-prices-for-natural-gas-in-the-united-states-and-europe/

Really.

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/crude-oil

Funny but $80 a barrel on Feb 21 2022 and $119 by March 7 2022.

The price dropped as summer arrived and demand dropped.

But as we can see with fall and winter approaching, the price is again going to skyrocket.

But hey don't believe me just wait for winter.

-8 ( +5 / -13 )

I am still at the point of bewildered that so many are surprised, shocked, angry that Russia is using fuel/energy as a weapon.

Bewildered enough to still ignore that Russia is bombing children.

How many are acceptable before you ‘drive out the nazis’?

0 ( +8 / -8 )

A recession would be a given considering the actions of both the Federal Reserve and Bank of England to create a recession by lowering interest rates and thereby deflating the economy (stopping inflation), so anything that the Russians do would be additional downwards pressure on the economy and not actually be the cause of the recession. I also have a strong feeling that the sanctions will be removed due to increasing pressure from European citizens to prevent a energy catastrophe in the winter, where there is a growing realisation that Russia is capable of fighting this "cold war" due to strong support from Asia, and it may be that Europe/West is the worst affected. I think there is a misguided notion in western circles that Europeans want to "fight" against Russia whereas most Europeans do not deeply care about the geopolitics of Central Asia, but politicians in the west want to be seen as being "correct" and not backtracking.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

One-trick Vlad is playing his trick but it might not work out as he planned.

One trick?

Interesting.

As far as I can see his one trick is what?

Invasion of Ukraine now controling over 20%.

Or is it his using gas and oil as a weapon,

Perhaps it is using grain and food,.

Etc ..

I know you all would like to act as if you are all smarter than Putin and yep he is a real creap a dictator, etc.. but the sad name calling will not change the facts he presently holds the bigger stick and come winter that stick will get even bigger.

If you and your family are in Europe and the choice is you freezing or the Ukrainian army getting fuel for their vehicles,

Which are you going to chose? Because that is going to be a choice that will need to be made at one point.

-8 ( +6 / -14 )

Told you this not-so-bright EU policy would come back to bite it in the soft spot. Reap what you sow.

-6 ( +6 / -12 )

Redstorm,Gas prices are dropping in the US,by an dollar a gallon

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

I prefer to suffer a bit cold than let Russia add an additional country to its trophys by killing thousanss of innocents. If not stopped, Russia will go further.

Reminder of History with Hitler's strategy by annexing Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia and then the Anschluss.

This situation is all because stupid politicians, with Angela Merkel as first guilty person, have decided not to promote nuclear energy.

France is struggling to recover from maintenance for a good percentage if its nuclear reactors while Germany let go its nuclear capacity.

As an engineer, I always said this was non-sense, that Green politicians were ideologues without any thoughts about the versatility of nuclear energy not only for providing energy but as a geostrategic utility.

Many engineers had say so.

@Antiquesaving

Sorry this time you are wrong. I noticed the price of gas was already skyrocketing 2021.

https://fsr.eui.eu/skyrocketing-energy-prices/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/673333/monthly-prices-for-natural-gas-in-the-united-states-and-europe/

Putin did just see an opportunity to hit, that is all. Russia is led by an autocrat that just wants to be seen as a strongman. I think recent history has showed us the personality of that man.

Common sense please. No conspiracy nor fake history.

0 ( +8 / -8 )

it is Ukraine that 100% refuses any talks unless Russia leaves

And rightly so.

When the big bully picks on the little kid in the playground, takes his dinner money, rips his shirt and punches him in the gut, you expect the little kid to be happy just because the grownups stopped the bully punching him?

Ukraine is right to demand the muscovites get out of Ukraine. All of Ukraine.

Negotiations can start with how much the bully needs to pay to replace the shirt and cover medical charges.

3 ( +12 / -9 )

One-trick Vlad is playing his trick but it might not work out as he planned.

One-trick Vlad assumes that all parties are only transactional and self-serving (because he is). He assumes that at the first hint of frost, the Western alliance will cave and serve up Ukraine on a platter to get the gas flowing again.

To be fair: that could happen. The future is unknown but I doubt it.

The secret that Putie and his RT bois here miss is that Western support for Ukraine is solid. Western governments realize that Vlad the (wannabe) impaler is an existential issue and that it faces him down in Ukraine today or in the Baltic’s in the future.

AND there’s just something so off-putting about the bs excuses and war crimes that drive public opinion. Funny how actual democracies tend to support one-another. Thus popular support for Ukraine is also solid and (one certainly hopes) will last longer than the winter.

Moreover, Vlad is proving what has long been thought: Russia is not a reliable energy supplier and that Europe needs to transition away from Russian gas as it provides leverage.

To be sure, this is going to be a more uncomfortable winter, but on the other side is an even more economically bereft Russia and a more energy independent Europe.

-2 ( +8 / -10 )

I am still at the point of bewildered that so many are surprised, shocked, angry that Russia is using fuel/energy as a weapon.

How many here keep quoting the Chamberlain "peace in our time" fiasco as if they understand or learned something from history.

Obviously those using this quote no little or nothing about history but repeat something they heard.

During the Sino-Japan war just prior to the USA entering the war, the USA cut off oil to Japan as a weapon to support China.

Before and during WW2 blockades embargoes, attacks on fuel supplies were crucial in crippling the enemy.

The German counter offensive in the Battle of the bulge crucially just ran out of fuel as one major factor.

The list goes on,

So how any military expert, political strategists, politician suddenly didn't see this coming is either mass amnesia or mass stupidity.

I keep reading this article over and over wondering what the governments and author were thinking was going to happen.

-4 ( +9 / -13 )

If people think that no longing supplying Ukraine with weapons and aid will somehow bring Russia to the negotiating table

I think you need to review facts.

Turkey came with a negotiation offer Russia agreed to talks, it is Ukraine that 100% refuses any talks unless Russia leaves, and by leave Ukraine has now not only included all the Donbas but now included Crimea, meaning that Ukraine has zero intention of talking.

So yes cutting off Ukraine will lead to talks because Russia is ready but not Ukraine.

-6 ( +9 / -15 )

Luddite

Today 04:42 pm JST

@Ego Sum Lux Mundi The UKs energy crisis has many causes, Russia is just one factor, we do not rely on their gas like most of Europe. There is a global energy problem, BTW, if you think it won’t affect you elsewhere in the world you are incredibly naive.

Really that is what we are being told by western media and politicians.

Funny how that "energy problem" only suddenly started after Russia invaded Ukraine and sanctions were imposed. Just some strange coincidence that oil and gas prices skyrocketed at the same time.

Come on there is more than enough oil and gas for several decades only the Sanctions have cut off one of the largest supply.

Even poor countries cannot get oil or gas because the West is blocking them from buy from Russia and they cannot afford the now crazy high prices the western oil companies are charging.

This is a purely artificial crisis.

-5 ( +10 / -15 )

Donbas was a war started by Russian separatists.

The war which started in April 2014 between Russia (through proxies of Donetsk and Luhansk “people's republics”) and Ukraine has driven up to two million people out of the region. They fled in two directions: east, across the border into the Russian Federation, and west, into inner regions of Ukraine.

If Putin supports a separatist area in Donbas why did he not do the same in Chechnya? 17,000 killed.

yeah, rewrite the history !!!

2014, Donbass republic declared their independence from Ukraine, Ukraine started bombing Dombass supported by nato

1999, Kosovo decleared their indepencede from Serbia, nato bombed Serbia

lol

-3 ( +11 / -14 )

So those hard hitting sanctions on Russia are actually making Russia richer while hurting European consumers and industry?

Whose brilliant idea was this?

welcome to the political genius in Bruxelles

0 ( +12 / -12 )

Two things:

If people think that no longing supplying Ukraine with weapons and aid will somehow bring Russia to the negotiating table, think again. Putin wants to eliminate the bulk of Ukraine because they fought on the side of Germany in WW2 - hence his constant banging on about 'de-Nazification'.

Russia won't negotiate their way to a cease fire until either the Ukraine forces have been eliminated, or Putin gets what he wants, whichever comes first.

Russia will make countries pay through the nose for his gas, and he knows he can use it against EU governments. People are going to be cold this winter, some may die... but Putin sees this as a good thing. It will turn people against their governments, look to Russia for their fuel. Victory for Russia.

This is worse than the Cold War of the past... you don't need nukes to bring Europe to its knees - you just need to invade and decimate another country.

-5 ( +8 / -13 )

An article grouping some of the dumbest things said ever.

Berlin has accused Moscow of halting supplies over Western sanctions imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Yah think! You cut the country off from nearly everything then think they are still going to be ni6and give you cheap gas? Who is running Germany, a 2 year old?

Many believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is using energy supplies as a strategic weapon to put pressure on nations that have applied sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

No! You don't say!

You send HIMARS, Howitzers, Rockets, drones, etc.. to Ukraine to fight Russia in a proxy war and then think Russia isn't going to the gas and oil supply as a weapon, what did the USA do before WW2 with Japan, it cut off oil and supplied weapons to China.

Did someone suddenly think oil and gas were no longer weapons.

The less fuel Europe has for it's own use the less fuel Ukraine will have,

While Russia this winter will have fuel for it's vehicles, Ukraine will struggle as western Europe debate whether to give Ukraine's military fuel or their own population fuel.

The only two places to benefit are Canada and the USA, Canada is back to full production of dirty oilsands oil that low prices made it impossible to continue just a few months ago, the USA selling weapons to Ukraine and gas to Europe at high prices.

-4 ( +11 / -15 )

@Ego Sum Lux Mundi The UKs energy crisis has many causes, Russia is just one factor, we do not rely on their gas like most of Europe. There is a global energy problem, BTW, if you think it won’t affect you elsewhere in the world you are incredibly naive.

8 ( +14 / -6 )

So end your war on Russia, guys. You took sides and you lost. It’s over. This really isn’t that hard.

This won’t age well. But I doubt you’ll notice.

5 ( +16 / -11 )

If even the wealthy and highly-prepared Swiss are anticipating shortage-related social unrest despite their famous world-class self-sufficiency, the social order across Europe is unlikely to remain intact this winter.

No one is falling for the RT propaganda you're posting. It's literally Russian state media.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/swentr.site/news/561220-switzerland-revolt-energy-deficit-police/amp/

7 ( +17 / -10 )

There is not any supply problem in reality. They could have that gas from the new unused pipeline. And even with sanctions kept the supply is secured and enough gas ordered. The problem is, as I have just read, to transfer the many different gas deliveries from everywhere to Europe, because there aren’t pipelines or enough ships. That’s a self made problem, nothing else. You can’t make the Russians responsible for not available or enough pipelines or marine transportation capacities from Norway or Canada etc and at the same time deny getting easy, sufficient and available delivery options. In shorter words, they are only very sick in the head but surely not out of available megatons of gas. lol

2 ( +10 / -8 )

European lifestyle support wake-up call.

Like oil in 1970s, things change.

Adapt, Europe, and btw, welcome to the future.

-9 ( +6 / -15 )

European governments are mainly to blame for this fiasco by pursuing rescrewables at the expense of affordable and reliable energy supplies. All Putin did was bring forward the day of reckoning. Of course the politicians and their owners who made this possible will be insulated from the pain, but not the people who're forced to pay their salaries via taxes.

-10 ( +10 / -20 )

If even the wealthy and highly-prepared Swiss are anticipating shortage-related social unrest despite their famous world-class self-sufficiency, the social order across Europe is unlikely to remain intact this winter.

Swiss people may revolt and resort to looting if the Alpine nation is hit by a severe energy crunch this winter, the police chief of one of its cantons told local media on Saturday.

Fredy Fassler, the head of the Security and Justice Department in the canton of St. Gallen, told German-language daily Blick that a blackout would have “far-reaching consequences.”

“Imagine, you can no longer withdraw money at the ATM, you can no longer pay with the card in the store or refuel your tank at the gas station. Heating stops working. It’s cold. Streets go dark. It is conceivable that the population would rebel or that there would be looting,” he said, adding that the country’s authorities should take measures to prepare for such extreme scenarios…

Fassler’s comments come after Swiss authorities said last week that they may place restrictions on energy consumption this coming winter, signaling that “power shortages [are] among the most serious risks” for the landlocked country.

What the Swiss police chief doesn’t mention is that the main reason the Swiss would likely be rebelling against their government is that the country produces what should be sufficient electricity for its own winter needs, but it has promised to provide a fair amount of that electricity to the rest of Europe. And the Swiss people are very unlikely to accept the idea that they have to freeze in the dark so that their electricity can be sent to France or Germany due to the outdated ideals of a few US neocons and globalist Europhiles.

Still, the fact that the Swiss authorities are already talking openly about the situation and at least beginning to try to address the problem is a positive sign. The silence of the EU countries on the subject does not bode quite so well. Of course, the solution for the Europeans is perfectly straightforward: stop participating in the neocon’s proxy war on Russia, end the idiotic sanctions regime, return everything that was seized, and apologize profusely to the Russian government.

Like it or not, no one can deny that it’s a better alternative than famine, freezing, and facing a popular revolt. If they don’t choose wisely, the over/under on EU regime change before this time next year is probably around five and could be considerably higher. And Italy and Hungary will not be the only nations to exit the EU.

Ultimately, nationalism is inevitable. Nationalism is inevitable because globalist imperialism is constructed on false foundations that we now know to be both evil and impossible.

Notice that the Swiss are on the verge of panic on the basis of an expected 10-percent shortfall. I anticipate the shortfalls in other European nations will be at least 3x that.

The energy shortage is “imminent”, Roger Nordmann from the left-wing Social Democratic party told the SonntagsBlick. “The war in Ukraine is causing acute gas shortages. Half of the nuclear power plants in France are at a standstill. And the drought is putting a strain on hydropower. This combination of drastic factors means that Switzerland could be short of around 15% gas and up to 10% electricity in the coming winter,” he said.

So end your war on Russia, guys. You took sides and you lost. It’s over. This really isn’t that hard.

PS: Now the NHS in the UK is also starting to foresee trouble.

The UK could face a “humanitarian crisis” involving ill health, excess deaths and rising inequality if the government does not take urgent action on rising energy bills, the National Health Service (NHS) Confederation warned on Friday. The organization wrote to the chancellor of the exchequer, claiming that failing to act would add more pressure on health services that were already strained.

-10 ( +13 / -23 )

Its like European politicians blindly follow US. US has the privilege of owning decent sourgces of gas, oil and many other natural resources. But EU?? What were they thinking they would depend on? US is not stupid to share its resources with its allies. Damn US is so evil, sanctioning and trying to weaken Russia, urging EU to cut ties with Russia as well (which will cripple EU), and triggering war between Taiwan and China.

-6 ( +13 / -19 )

Drop the sanctions, why should families who are trying to make ends meet have to suffer by their bills and expenses going through the roof.

Drop the war. Why should families who are trying to live their lives peacefully have to suffer by seeing their children killed?

Yeah I know 14,000 civilians killed in Donbas since 2014. I keep hearing it from people apparently unconcerned that 5,000 civilians were killed by Russia in the past 6 months.

2 wrongs don’t make a right. Russia started this ‘special operation’. Anyone defending their actions should be condemned.

10 ( +24 / -14 )

Well, Europeans. You made your bed, now you must lie in it.

-8 ( +15 / -23 )

So those hard hitting sanctions on Russia are actually making Russia richer while hurting European consumers and industry?

Whose brilliant idea was this?

-9 ( +15 / -24 )

i see no problem at all.

EU countries wanted be cutted off from russian gas and oil as want stand for their "values" as taking side of Ukraine in conflict and they think they can "support" UA by this...so yes Russians have just "helped" a bit...

RU will sell gas and oil to other markets and they will have no big issues at all in long term horizon.Will survive without EU easy.

story is very flat as mentioning only private "gas savers" but how about production of goods and factories/industry?will europeans "take that easy" as writer of this article?I guess NOT.

EU politicians are working hard in name of US interests ready to ruin own economies during next few months...its completely insane.

-6 ( +17 / -23 )

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