“As the West levies their petty sanctions against Russia...Russia says they don’t “need” us and those pipelines in the Ukraine? They get shut-off!”
In the long run, economical sanctions don’t work.
We only have to look back at the end of the 80ies, when Reagan convinced Saudi Arabia to open the tabs and flood the market with cheap oil. It hurt Yeltsin’s Russia then. In 1995 Russia made some $40 billion from oil export. It makes now over $400 billion a year.
Besides Russia is the first natural gas exporter in the world, which brings in another $160 billion a year.
Meanwhile Germany and Japan have abandonned the nuclear energy and rely heavily on gas imports.
Germany increased its import of Russia gas from 26% to 40% last year. Japan spent some $70 billion on gas import last year.
In Europe fraking is forbidden by the EU regulations, so the continental countries have no other choice than relying on Russian natural gas from 70 to 100% of their energy needs. Battered Ukraine depends also on Russian gas at 66%.
I really don’t see in the short run Europe committing economic suicide, just to please Obama and his Clowns United team.