Right now, the European Union contributed $1 billion towards Vladimir Putin’s warfare machine. Tomorrow, the EU will contribute one other $1 billion to the Kremlin’s ongoing carnage of Ukrainian residents. And $1 billion the following day too.
The funds will proceed to pour into Russia till, we're assured, however hardly comforted, the EU cuts that quantity by a 3rd by the tip of 2022. By the 12 months 2030, simply eight brief years from now, the EU hopes to wean itself off of Russian vitality sources.
By that date, if Europe has not ceded Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Georgia, Finland and different nations to Russia, Putin will lastly be taught a lesson.
The billion-dollars-a-day per diem comes within the type of coal, fuel and oil that the EU purchases to maintain its financial system buzzing alongside whereas colleges and maternity hospitals are being obliterated in Mariupol and Kyiv and the our bodies of ladies and youngsters are piling up in morgues, whereas thousands and thousands of refugees with an unsure future disperse all through Europe. (America, not as depending on Russian vitality sources, banned exports of Russian oil, liquefied pure fuel and coal earlier this month.)
“However the sanctions!” the EU will argue. Take a look at Russia’s faltering financial system!
No. As a substitute, take a look at the physique rely and the humanitarian disaster at your borders. Calculate the longer term prices of resettling these refugees or rebuilding Ukraine — that's, if the warfare and occupation finish in Europe’s favor, which isn’t a certain wager in any respect. And definitely not if the warfare spills into neighboring NATO international locations.
In a revealing interview with the BBC, Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Stoere, fastidiously parsed Europe’s reasoning for persevering with its dependancy on Russia’s huge oil and fuel reserves. After pointing to the financial sanctions it has imposed, and the army and humanitarian support the EU is offering, the prime minister admitted: “Europe can be accountable for having purposeful economies.”
Purposeful economies all the time trump rescuing a democratic nation. Observe that Norway, which is the tenth largest exporter of oil on this planet, is without doubt one of the nice beneficiaries of the rising vitality prices attributable to the present warfare. No sense turning off that spigot of kroner simply but, not when Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is rising handsomely with each $140 barrel of oil bought on the world market.
BBC moderator Zeinab Badawi was not about to let the prime minister off the hook. She stated: “You are attempting to combat Russian tanks with the banks, because it had been, and it’s simply not going to be quick sufficient.”
Stoere, whose nation isn't a member of the EU, countered: “I don’t purchase your equation. Europe has to nonetheless gas its financial system, in somehow. They're shopping for oil on the worldwide market. … They can not take down their very own economies and on the identical time resist what Russia is doing.”
When Badawi famous that “Europe is failing” this check of its resolve, Stoere responded: “To be trustworthy, if Europe had been to cease shopping for oil and fuel (and coal) from Russia, it won't cease the warfare machine preventing in Ukraine, regretfully.”
Stoere, the top of one of many NATO nations that shares a border with Russia, continued with some pretzel logic concerning Europe’s dedication to renewable vitality sources corresponding to wind, photo voltaic and the fairly oxymoronic label for the supply generally known as “secure nuclear.” He believes that the present excessive prices of fuel and oil will power European nations to rapidly transition to renewables.
Nonetheless, within the brief time period, the other is happening. Europe is popping towards cheaper, extra polluting forms of vitality corresponding to coal. The UK is even contemplating lifting its 2019 ban on fracking for shale fuel as a technique to offset the spiraling vitality prices to British households.
As Bloomberg reported earlier this month, Frans Timmermans, the EU’s local weather czar, instructed lawmakers on the surroundings committee that “due to what’s occurring in Russia, there aren't any taboos within the selections member states could make.” Timmermans “left it as much as every nation to resolve whether or not they'll make up for burning extra fossil fuels within the brief time period by boosting investments in renewables,” the report stated.
As Russian bombs mercilessly hit civilian targets beneath Putin’s scorched earth technique, and as Europe pays for “the drama of warfare” by buying Russia’s huge vitality reserves, it's unimaginable to “look past” to any sort of future for the thousands and thousands of harmless victims, killed, trapped and held hostage in Ukraine.
Stephen J. Lyons is the writer of 5 books of essays and journalism. His latest e-book is “West of East.” ©2022 Chicago Tribune. distributed by Tribune Content material Company.