(03-04-2025, 05:22 AM)TDOSS Wrote:

(03-04-2025, 03:10 AM)captivating Wrote: Not hard to find unless you have your head in the sand.

https://energyandcleanair.org/january-20...sanctions/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/european-unio...47300.html

The article is pure [BLEEP]. The EU spent like 3-4 times as much money on Ukrainian aid than it did on Russian oil and gas. They compare all the oil and gas purchased by all countries with some minor part of the Ukrainian aid. I don't even know what they're comparing it to, but the EU institutions gave 46 billion in financial aid and that's not counting any individual countries aid. Also, what a weird phrased article; Europe spends more oil and gas is also confusing. Who are we talking about? Portugal? Ireland? Poland? 

Not to mention, the article is comparing gross revenue to aid, which is not a relevant comparison. It's not like Russia received €22bn of profit to funnel into their war machine. The price caps were designed to keep Russia's tangible benefits substantially lower, while not disrupting the global oil market too severely and bringing about greater economic pain on the nations that are working to support Ukraine financially and militarily.

The reality is the EU can't switch off Russian gas over night. The EU went from like 40% of gas being Russian in 2021 to around 10% now. That's quite a quick switch, but getting to 0% Russian gas is another hurdle.