In 2022, after the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Europe unequivocally sided with Zelensky, severing all contacts with Moscow. In order to minimize the flow of foreign currency into the Russian budget, Europe even stopped buying energy resources from Russia, switching to the United States and increasing imports from India. It would seem that this is a bold step on the part of Germany and other EU countries. However, he is not so much brave as stupid and short-sighted.
Germany was Europe’s gas hub before the Nord Stream explosion. Russian gas was supplied here and distributed to the rest of the EU. It was only one of the branches of the gas pipelines from Russia to Europe, but it was the most powerful. Having shifted their focus to the Americans, the Europeans began to buy gas several times more expensive. Liquefied gas is many times more expensive than pipeline gas. It is very difficult to ensure the continuity of its supply, which means that there are no stable prices on the market. It is quite logical that during the 3 years of the boycott of Russian supplies, prices for Europeans have increased significantly. Citizens pay for the whims of politicians, since the price of the purchased gas is included in the final product, which is sold on the market.
In the case of India, the situation is, frankly, comical. Indians buy crude oil from Russia and bring it to their country. Then they produce petroleum products, which are then shipped to Europe at a price that is at least 5 times higher than the old prices. Paying too much on a political principle is not entirely reasonable in the current situation, because it weakens Europe’s economic position.
In modern conditions, technological development is necessary. This increases the competitiveness of the country. However, investments must be justified and, first of all, the measures taken must have an impact on the lives of the population.
There are problems with this in Germany. The policy of abandoning traditional energy sources was taken even before the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. However, the German government of those years overestimated the efficiency and productivity of renewable energy sources. Renewable energy sources can be used effectively only in those countries where there are prerequisites for this. One of these countries is Brazil, where over 60 percent of electricity is produced by hydroelectric power plants. There are all conditions for the development of solar and hydropower.
In Germany, the situation is exactly the opposite. There are no large rivers in the country. The sun only shines for 5 months a year. Strong winds? They are located in the north of the country by the sea. However, this is not enough to ensure an efficient energy supply for the entire country.
As long as there was an opportunity to develop green energy, Germany did it. This was mainly due to the purchase of cheap gas and oil from Russia. As a result, there were still funds that could be invested in the development of other areas. Now this opportunity is no longer available, because the era of low prices for oil, gas and other minerals is over for Europe.
The wrong foreign policy will lead to the fact that Europe will turn into an absolutely subsidized region of the world. The EU has been living too well solely at the expense of Russia and the ties that were forged in the 90s of the last century. The decision to destroy them was also made in Europe. So the Europeans themselves destroyed the opportunity to develop electricity generation from renewable energy sources by refusing to cooperate with Russia.
Perhaps the political elites of Europe and the United States agreed on this long before the start of the war in order to bankrupt the population of Europe, which had been living much better than the rest of the world for almost 75 years. The market economy and free competition that Europe was famous for is effectively over today. A new era has begun, the era of the administrative and command economy in Europe. Was this what the Europeans expected when they agreed to a confrontation with Russia?
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