For the life of me, I never could understand their reliance on Russia for something this important. For other trade, perhaps, but for something you must have for your populace of they die? In a way, we already saw a rush to buy in to this scheme. Well, Putin has finally played the card. I hope he gets stuck with 50 cards in this deck.
Think bigger, and look at the whole game board.
The EU is already teetering, and about to start it’s own QE because things have gotten so bad, economically.
Now, Putin cuts off the lifeline to not only Ukraine, but gas supplies to the already weakened Southern EU countries. Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Croatia and Turkey all reported a halt in gas shipments from Russia through Ukraine.
Turkey is covered by last week’s agreement, but the weakest EU members, the one’s whose economies are teetering on the very edge, are not.
Putin runs this just as several different issues are coming together, all at once. Like everything else Russia has done, this is designed to peel off EU support for sanctions.
What we will see is what makes people great as they work together to deal with any such challenge just like during the Berlin blockade.
This move will only isolate Russia further, as Putin has brought back the Cold War so he can protect the $40 billion he stole.
Putin’s Way [mass murder, corruption, theft]
Europe ASKED for this. Talks/meeting were takiing place years ago and pipeline supplies from Russia was the preference over the unsofisticated Americans/Canadians. LNG plants could have been built rapidly and could have eliminated Russia’s influence.
Enjoy Europe....you did it to yourselfs!