The West’s escalating arms shipments and economic penalties has prompted Russia to cut off gas supplies to two European nations.
This news, after a series of high-level summit meetings, since the start of this week, indicates the war in Ukraine has, and is, widening.
Gazprom, Russia’s state-run gas company, announced that it was suspending shipments of natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria, a move that the European Union (EU)’s top official denounced as “blackmail.”
Though the immediate economic impact was likely to be limited, it was the Kremlin’s toughest retaliation yet against a US-led alliance that it has accused of backing Ukraine in a proxy war aimed at weakening Russia.
This action by the pleasant folks in the Kremlin comes as a stark warning that further, more serious cutoffs of fuel from Russia could be in the offing as the war in Ukraine grinds on.
The gas stoppage for Europe comes at a good time, if there is such a thing; with the spring weather turning warmer, gas consumption, which surges in the winter, is in decline, easing some of the pressure that has kept prices elevated for months.
Unlike some other European nations, Poland has been working for at least a decade to avoid being held to ransom by Moscow over energy.
Poland has also been putting gas into storage facilities that are now more than 75% full, more than double the European average.
Russia’s war on Ukraine is ALREADY rippling through Europe [as well as here in America – the market this week has been a complete disaster!!!], lashing energy prices and hurting manufacturers just as the bloc was recovering from a pandemic-induced recession.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week cut its ’22 forecast for the countries that use the euro to 2.8%, from a 3.9% estimate in January, with Germany, the largest economy, taking a big hit.
Lobster on the Prairie 