It’s a notable evolution in strategy for the EU, and came after Germany and Hungary held up a deal for weeks.
The EU will hit Russia with unprecedented sanctions against its lucrative gas sector, according to the Belgian EU presidency — a once-unthinkable step that could drain hundreds of millions from Moscow’s war chest.
The decision, which EU ambassadors reached Thursday morning, came after stiff opposition from Germany and Hungary stalled a deal for weeks — though over different parts of the package.
The penalties won’t hit the majority of Russia’s liquid natural gas (LNG) exports to the EU. Instead, they will ban EU ports from reselling Russian LNG after it arrives and block financing for Russia’s planned Arctic and Baltic LNG terminals.
In a little over 2 years the EU went from being primarily dependent on Russian gas to now slapping on sanctions.
I’ll bet China is watching this.
The EU has now started identifying which resources rely on china that we can’t live without and will also start divesting there. Russian gas crunch was a tough and expensive lesson.