The EU no longer buys Russian oil, but the markets remain calm - Putin's next defeat

Created: 05/02/2022, 18:30

By: Georg Anastasiadis

Georg Anastasiadis (small photo, right) comments on the growing difficulties for the autocrats Putin and Xi.

© Ramil Sitdikov/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/dpa/Kaus Haag

Russia is tottering militarily, China, plagued by Corona, economically.

The EU is increasing the pressure with its sixth package of sanctions and the oil embargo.

The anti-Putin alliance is making progress with its geopolitical energy transition.

A commentary by Georg Anastasiadis.

Europe agrees in principle on an oil embargo against Russia - but on the markets the price of black gold is not exploding, it is falling.

How is that possible?

Well, Europe's enormous efforts to free itself from Putin's energy lockdown have been more effective than imagined two months ago.

Europe's supply of coal and oil (not gas) is secure even without supplies from Russia.

China has helped involuntarily: The huge empire is stuck in a dramatic lockdown crisis because of its fatal corona policy, which is ruining its economy and curbing the global hunger for energy.

For the Beijing regime, which is up to its neck in difficulties, Putin's war is becoming more and more of a burden because it is an additional obstacle to economic development.

Ukraine war: Putin was wrong about the unity of the West

This is bad news for the Kremlin.

The next.

Putin underestimated the Ukrainians' love of their homeland and resistance and overestimated the clout of their own military. He was wrong about the unity of the West and also about its determination to oppose his aggression.

Encouraged by Europe's progress in the geopolitical energy transition, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has now added to the Western war aims: It is now also a matter of weakening Putin so that he can no longer wage aggressive wars in the future.

Unlike the signers of the Artists' Resolution, who called on the Ukrainians to surrender, Baerbock understood that a Putin victory threatens Germany's security far more than the defenders' holding their ground, because it would open the door to further raids,

possibly also on NATO territory.

Weapons are needed in the short term to keep Putin in check.

In the longer term, sanctions help because they drain Russia's war coffers.

The sixth EU sanctions package comes at the right time.