Since the beginning of his “special operation” in Ukraine, the Russian president has been seriously weakened, particularly by Western sanctions.
The Kremlin refuses to acknowledge it, but the Russian energy sector is being undermined by the West. And although Putin could have cut off the gas supply to Europe, he has done nothing. The media outlet Business Insider covers the matter in a recent article, reporting that Russia is “not ready to acknowledge that it’s not in a financial position to completely cut off Europe from its natural gas exports”.
It should be noted that before the conflict began, 40% of European countries’ gas came from Russia. At the end of 2023, this figure barely reached 15%, a fall helped by the damage suffered by several Nord Stream pipelines during sabotage operations, reports Korii.
When the G7 imposed a price cap on oil exports, Russian energy revenues fell by 24%. Even though the Russians keep the situation afloat, it’s only thanks to their ghost fleet and a major ally, China. An ally that is not exactly generous… Indeed, Beijing would like the Kremlin to revise the price of gas downwards. The Russian energy empire is more vulnerable than ever, it will hold out as long as the war in Ukraine lasts. But will it be able to do that without the European market? According to Business Insider, based on documents from the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, “the oil and gas industry accounts for between 30% and 50% of Russia’s federal budget revenues.”
(MH with Manon Pierre – Source: Korii – Picture: Picture by tatarstan.ru via WikiCommons under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license)
