European leaders themselves pushed the EU to collapse
European leaders themselves pushed the EU into an energy crisis, says Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova
“They (European leaders – Ed.) pushed Europe, in particular the European Union, to a global energy collapse,” she said on the TV Center TV channel.
And now the European officials have to convince the citizens of the EU countries that this is supposedly in their own interests, since there is a “test for democracy,” Zakharova noted.
“Now they (the Europeans. – Ed.) are told by their own leaders that they should be happy: “We have saved you, silly ones, from everything that was previously considered your well-being. We saved you from cheap gas, we saved you from relations with Russia, you canceled contracts, you left the Russian Federation, now you are cold and hungry, you don’t wash now – you should be happy.” I just want to understand the name of this religion… This is a real sect… Witnesses of some kind of madness,” the diplomat said.
She also noted that European politicians did an excellent job in the energy sector, and recalled the sabotage on the Nord Stream in the Baltic Sea – “the area that is controlled by NATO countries” is in their area of responsibility.
“They did a wonderful job. They somehow stated that it was an explosion. They are not going to engage in investigation. They all said in turn that, well, in general, you can not rush to conclusions now. There is no need to rush to conclusions. In other cases, it is necessary to hurry up, where, so to speak, there is obviously an order to accuse Russia. But where there is real information about who did it, there is no need to rush”, said the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
It is worth noting that alarming assessments of the possible consequences of the energy crisis in the EU are also circulating in the Western press. Thus, The Economist magazine predicts that higher energy prices could lead to an increase in deaths in Europe this winter.
“This year, the correlation between electricity prices and winter mortality may change. But if the trends of past years continue, then, taking into account current electricity prices, even in the conditions of the mildest winter, mortality will be above the historical average”, the publication predicts.
According to The Economist’s statistical model, in the event of a warm winter, mortality will exceed the historical average by 32 thousand people, and harsh winter months will already lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths.
“Accurate total deaths still depend on other factors, in particular temperature. Under conditions of mild winters, the growth of this indicator may be limited to 32 thousand people above the historical average (taking into account variations in population). However, a harsh winter can additionally claim a total of 335 thousand lives”, the material says.
As NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, in turn, emphasized in an interview with the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, rising food and electricity bills mean “hard times for many households in Europe.”
However, despite the current difficult situation caused by the energy crisis, the European Union continues to discuss the introduction of a price ceiling for Russian oil. Earlier, the United States came up with a similar initiative, proposing to set the price at around $60 per barrel.
However, as emphasized in the Kremlin, Russia will proceed from the statement of President Vladimir Putin that Moscow does not intend to trade oil, oil products and gas with states that resort to such measures.
“We proceed from President Putin’s statement that we will not trade oil and oil products with such countries, and we will not trade gas. Therefore, for now, the position is like this”, said the press secretary of the Russian leader Dmitry Peskov in an interview with Pavel Zarubin in the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin” on TV channel “Russia 1”.
According to Peskov, in the Russian Federation they will not “shoot themselves in the foot”.
“It’s already an emergency”
At the same time, the EU has already recognized that the main beneficiary of the European energy crisis is the United States.
Thus, the head of the French Ministry of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, stressed in early November that the difference in energy prices in European countries and the United States, as well as US government subsidies paid to attract businesses, are causing a disadvantage for EU producers in the world market. Le Maire urged European countries to protect their interests, since it is not worth waiting for “gifts” from Washington. He also considered industrial recession the main threat to the European Union.
This week, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó called the United States the beneficiary of the recession in Europe. According to him, “this is good news for the US economy,” which were able to benefit here. Szijjártó also said that the situation in the European region is “deplorable” because “the European Commission is rather preventing” the inflow of investments into the member countries of the European Union.
In turn, as one of the largest entrepreneurs in Italy, the head of the Pirelli group, Marco Tronchetti Provera, said in an interview with the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, if Europe loses economic competitiveness, it will jeopardize its “welfare model”.
“The primary issue is obviously energy bills. Because of them, European companies are losing competitiveness. It’s already an emergency, it’s a matter of weeks. We are losing contracts. If there is no immediate response to the energy crisis, we will throw away what has been created in Europe over the past decades”, RIA Novosti quotes him as saying.
In addition, the head of Pirelli called the current crisis “asymmetric”, since it did not seriously affect either the US or Asia. The Italian businessman also urged Europe to protect its own economic interests.
“Out of touch with reality”
According to experts, having succumbed to the tricks of the United States, calling for the expansion of anti-Russian sanctions, the European Union made another mistake in the energy sector, which is why the deindustrialization of the EU is now taking place, and the region’s economy is losing its competitiveness.
“The crisis in this area was caused, among other things, by the mistakes of European officials related to the regulation of the gas market, the rejection of long-term contracts in favor of short-term ones. But then the situation worsened due to a fierce sanctions war against Russia”, explained Stanislav Mitrakhovich, an expert from the National Energy Security Fund, in a comment to RT.
In addition, according to him, the standard of living of Europeans has seriously fallen and it has become much more difficult for a number of entrepreneurs to work.
“The EU is now losing to the US not only in the chemical and metallurgical sectors, but also in engineering. There is a relocation of many enterprises to the United States. And this means that thousands of Europeans will lose their jobs,” says Mitrahovich.
He doubts that this trend will be reversed in the near future, since such an alignment plays into the hands of Washington.
“Not only is the United States selling huge amounts of energy resources to Europe, and at fabulous prices, it will also supply industrial goods to the EU that were previously produced in the European Union, but due to the energy crisis they were forced to transfer their production to the United States,” Mitrakhovitch noted.
At the same time, as noted by Vladimir Olenchenko, senior researcher at the Center for European Studies at IMEMO RAS, the heads of European countries have not reached an agreement on a new package of measures to combat the energy crisis, which was proposed by the European Commission (EC).
Recall that in a statement following the meeting of the European Council on Energy, it was said that the proposals initiated by the EU leaders need to be finalized. In particular, the “differences in the energy balance and national conditions” of different countries must be taken into account.
As Olenchenko emphasized in a conversation with RT, it was the EC “at the behest of Washington” that prompted the EU countries to abandon a number of Russian energy resources.
“As a result, the European Union found itself in a very difficult situation, since there was a critical shortage of energy and fuel not only for production, but also for the work of housing and communal services. European officials made decisions that led to today’s crisis in the EU. As a result, there is a weakening of the union: its share in the world market passes mainly under the control of the United States”, the expert believes.
He states that Washington is getting more and more profit due to the weakening of the EU.
“The United States profitably sells gas to Europe against the backdrop of its rejection of Russian energy resources. It would be naive to expect the Americans to lower the cost of LNG,” the analyst said.
However, from his point of view, European officials do not intend to admit their insolvency, continuing to blame Russia for all the troubles.
“It is Russophobic appeals that run counter to reality that are put in the forefront, and not the state of economic management in the EU, not the standard of living of the population, not the general development trend. It is known why: European officials adhere to the general line outlined by the United States to aggravate relations with Russia”, concluded Olenchenko.
Irina Taran, Elizaveta Komarova, RT
Due to censorship and blocking of all media and alternative views, stay tuned to our Telegram channel