Here are a few facts and questions to introduce into this discussion.
1) Two major US oil companies had signed exploration agreements with Ukraine in 2012. THere were oil and gas prospects in the Black Sea surrounding Crimea and also in the east areas of Donbas and Luhansk.
2) Putin completed his annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea during Feb./March 2014.
3) Around this time Putin’s “little green men” started their aggressive actions in east Ukraine.
4) Was VP Biden following instructions in April 2014 to put obstacles in Putin’s way? At any rate the oil exploration contracts were canceled that year. Hunter definitely a poor choice. I don’t think he or his brother every really recovered from the death of their mother in the fatal auto accident they all experienced when they both were children.
5) What agreements did President Trump make about Ukraine in his private meeting(s?) with Putin after he was elected?
6) Regarding “Joe Biden forbids gas and energy production,” President Biden has forbidden (new?) contracts on public lands. [I believe we taxpayers are frequently underpaid for past earnings by private companies on our public lands.] He has NOT forbidden production on private lands.
7) Some of our more expensive oil areas, including fracking sites, shut down when oil became too cheap for profits. The break even point for a number of these seems to be around $80 a barrel. That is where world prices are hovering these days. The recent Saudi moves to decrease production and increase prices should motivate some restoration of pumping and new US drilling.
8) Putin’s goals in Crimea and eastern Ukraine have been to seize principal oil, gas, and coal reserves of Ukraine, and prevent them from competing with Russian products in Europe. Well, he has lost that market. If he keeps control of those parts of Ukraine he can develop and sell elsewhere. He has totally destroyed many cities and towns in those areas as his interest is in the underground and not the surface assets.
Should!